Team Rocket Triumphs
by Inferno Vulpix
Summary: Jesse and James used to be some of the best agents in Team Rocket history, at least before they fell into the practice of tailing an average trainer and his Pikachu around. Giovanni remembers the potential that Jesse and James used to have, and decides to get his top agents back to their former glory.
1. A Message From Headquarters

Team Rocket Triumphs, Chapter 1: A Message From Headquarters

* * *

Disclaimer: I don't own anything from this fanfic. There is original content but I'm not getting money for this anyways so why bother saying I own it?

* * *

The Team Rocket Headquarters was a bit tense this morning. Word had recently arrived that some of their top operatives had been found out in a crucial point in their mission. They were taken into custody and the whole mission had to be scrapped. Although, the only reason the agents knew about this is through the local news, so word had not yet reached Giovanni yet.

And that is why the messenger currently standing outside the boss's door was suddenly having second thoughts.

The project had taken a lot of resources and time to pull off as far as it had. While the boss was usually calm and rational while faced with situations like these, all it took was a single statement and the messenger would be in the unemployment line.

But of course, he couldn't just return to the office and say he didn't get the message delivered. That could ruin his credibility for a good long time.

The messenger mustered up his courage and knocked on the door. A few seconds later Matori, Giovanni's secretary, opened the door.

"What is it?" She asked.

"I have a message for Giovanni regarding agents Shapu and Buki." The messenger stated.

"Alright, just wait a moment. Giovanni is currently busy with paperwork." Matori said.

The messenger said nothing and waited nervously as the secretary closed the door. It opened again a few minutes later, and Matori said that the boss was ready to see him.

Giovanni, as always, looked calm and dangerous. He regarded the messenger with sharp curiosity, seemingly implying that this better be worth his time.

"What is the message?" He asked.

"Rocket Elite Agents Shapu and Buki were taken into custody yesterday at 9:00 PM. They were found out as agents and are awaiting trial. Their mission is no longer possible and steps have already been taken to salvage the materials not confiscated by the police." The messenger reported.

Giovanni seemed to take it rather well. A hint of annoyance flashed across his eyes, and he sighed deeply.

"Very well, I will adjust plans accordingly. You are dismissed." He said. The messenger, not one to disobey a direct order, left the room immediately.

"Are you going to break them out?" Matori asked Giovanni.

"Yes, but not immediately." Giovanni said, "the police will be extra careful for a while because of the capture, and I think a few weeks in prison might toughen them up a little. No doubt they could've avoided being found out if they weren't so loud." Indeed, Shapu was well known for yelling out at the worst times, attracting the attention of all around. When this happened, Buki was equally as loud in telling Shapu to shut up, and only attracted even more attention. It almost felt like they were cartoon characters sometimes.

"Understood." Matori said, "And what of the rest of the agents? I would think the failure of such a mission would be demoralizing."

"True," Giovanni admitted, "And a demoralized set of agents will only result in decreased efficiency. I will make a speech to them, so have every agent not currently in the field at the main hall in five hours. I need to finish this paperwork before I can get to writing the script." The secretary went to her computer and updated today's schedule. There was no chance of any agent missing out on the update, since whenever the schedule updated a notification was sent to every agent's phone, telling the new event and the details.

As Giovanni did the paperwork, he addressed another issue that had been bothering him lately. Back from the days his mother, Madame Boss as she was called, ran Team Rocket, agent Miyamoto had been chasing after the Legendary Pokemon Mew, but has had little progress over the many years she has been searching. She sends updates when she is near a post office, but there have been times when multiple years have passed with no contact at all. Giovanni had gotten another update last week, and he was yet again reminded that with an order he could call Miyamoto back to the HQ and send her off on a more possible mission. But he once again had disregarded the notion, as she was so stubborn that she might even refuse his order and keep searching anyways. What bothered him this time though was Miyamoto's request in the letter to send her regards to Jesse, her daughter. Miyamoto, far behind on recent events due to the remote places she travelled to, had only recently found out that Jesse had become a member of Team Rocket, and was overjoyed at the fact. Giovanni had, admittedly, forgot entirely about the trio of Jesse, James, and Meowth. They were just so incompetent that they didn't bother mention anymore. But now that he remembered them, he realized that Jesse bore a striking resemblance to Miyamoto back before they failed their mission at Viridian City and never reported back, supposedly off to capture a lone Pikachu. The more he thought about it, the more ridiculous it sounded; some of the best agents Team Rocket ever had wasting their talents not only tailing a lowly trainer, but failing every attempt they made to steal his Pokemon. Giovanni knew what they were capable of, and made his decision as he finished looking over the last paper in his pile:

He was going to retrain Jesse, James, and Meowth.

Giovanni then wrote up the script for his speech, and all the while he was composing a message in his head to be delivered to the trio.

The five hours passed, and Giovanni did manage to make the script for his speech without any difficulties. When he entered the main hall to make his speech it appeared that every available agent had indeed shown up for the speech, and was awaiting his words.

"As we are all aware of, a major setback has occurred today. Top Agents Shapu and Buki were captured yesterday while on their mission. Sadly, the mission has had to be scrapped, and we must consider this to be a failure." There were many gloomy faces at this; a lot of plans were riding on the success of this one.

"However, we are not giving up just yet!" Giovanni continued, "We are already taking measures to recover what we can from this mission, and we will get our agents back, even if we have to destroy the prison brick by brick to do so. And most of all, there is no way whatsoever that the glorious Team Rocket will just wallow in pity when we are dealt a loss. We will emerge from this ordeal stronger than we ever were before, and we will face all who stand before us unflinchingly." Giovanni took a look at the rest of the script and glanced away from it; he wouldn't need it for this next part.

"And besides, we are soon going to be accepting another two agents to the rank of top agents!" There was much murmuring at this, as no one had heard anything about this until now. "Although, I regret to inform you that the ones promoted are not going to be for a small while now, nor are they among the group before me. They are currently out in the field, but will be called back soon enough." In the next few days, during their breaks the majority of agents would argue and bicker over which agents were getting promoted. They went over all the possibilities but never once considered Jesse and James.

"We are Team Rocket." Giovanni continued, "We have faced adversity recently, but if anyone here or in the entire world thinks that we will simply give up from this, then they are very sadly mistaken. We will carry on until we are victorious, no matter how long it takes!" There were many cheers from this as the agents were inspired back to enthusiasm. Giovanni stood there for a moment more, and then, with a smile; he left and returned to his office, where he began to compose a short letter…

* * *

Somewhere in the Sinnoh Region:

Team Rocket (The trio, not the organization), were currently stuck on tree branches after their latest blastoff. They were spying on Ash and co. from behind some bushes as usual, when Piplup ran off through the bush and right into them. Unfortunately, Ash was still trying to teach Gible Draco Meteor, and the latest failed attempt not only hit Piplup, but also managed to make an explosion large enough to send the trio flying.

"We didn't even get close that time." James moaned.

"It's like the universe is out to get us or something." Meowth complained.

"And when victory was just within our grasp too!" Jesse whined.

The three of them struggled with the branches surrounding them, hoping to break free and get down to the ground. Unfortunately, they only succeeded in tangling themselves up more. Jesse was trying in vain now to reach for Yanmega's Pokeball when they heard from below a calm voice:

"Scyther, Air Slash!"

Quick as lightning, blades of solid air cut off the branches holding Team Rocket up, and they fell to the ground. They then managed to untangle themselves from their branches and stand up to face their rescuer.

Their rescuer happened to be a Team Rocket agent, a rookie by the looks of it. He spent a few moments checking his pockets for something, but eventually produced a letter and handed it to James.

"What's this?" James asked.

"It's a letter straight from Giovanni." The rookie replied. "He made it clear that you were to receive it as soon as possible."

With that, he and his Scyther left, presumably to deliver more mail.

"What's inside?" Meowth asked.

"Let's find out." Jesse said as she snatched the letter from James and opened it up. Inside the letter was a formal looking sheet of paper, which read:

Field Agents Jesse, James, and Meowth:

You are needed at Headquarters. You are to return at once, no matter what prior commitments or ambitions you may have. This is a direct order from your boss and you will obey it.

Giovanni.

"The boss wants us at Headquarters?" Meowth said. "Maybe he wants to promote us?"

"Or he could want to fire us." James pointed out, "If you haven't noticed, our track record has been less than perfect lately."

"I say we go!" Jesse declared, "If Giovanni wants us there it must be important!"

"But what about Pikachu?" James asked, "We can't just leave it behind!"

"Actually, we're supposed to." Meowth interjected, "It's written in the letter. 'No matter what prior commitments or ambitions you may have'."

"I say we put it up to a vote," Jesse said, "All in favour!" Jesse and Meowth each put their hand up, and James hung his head in resignation.

"All right then!" Meowth said, "Next stop is Team Rocket HQ!"

* * *

Some things I should note are that there are some obscure events that people might not know and some events that I made up or assumed.

So just to clarify, Madame Boss is Giovanni's mother, and lead Team Rocket before him.

Miyamoto is a real agent from the time of Madame Boss. She was an exceptional agent and was sent after Mew. There is no official word on whether or not she survived, but I'll just say she's very persistent.

The trio were in fact some of Team Rocket's best agents before Ash and Pikachu came along. Just think about it; their first appearance had them robbing an entire Pokemon Center, and if it weren't for Ash they would've succeeded.

Shapu and Buki are completely made up; no such characters exist in canon. Also, their names are direct translations of the Japanese words 'Sharp' and 'Weapon' respectively.

Expect a lot of made up characters from the HQ, as we don't know all that many members from there and the trio is going to be there for a while.

Lastly, Ash and co. are not going to feature prominently in this fanfic, but they will be important at certain points, so I will give updates on their progress throughout the fanfic. Also note that they are somewhere around Sunnyshore City, and I am going to disregard canon from there and make it all up as I feel the plot needs.


	2. Reassignment

Team Rocket Triumphs, Chapter 2: Reassignment

* * *

Disclaimer: I don't own anything from this fanfic. There is original content but I'm not getting money for this anyways so why bother saying I own it?

* * *

The Trio of Jesse, James, and Meowth took a few days to get to Headquarters, though that is to be expected since they are in Sinnoh and had to go all the way to Kanto before they were even on the same continent as the HQ. Add on their navigational abilities and memetic lack of money for a boat and it's really surprising they got there so fast.

But regardless of how they got there or how long it took, there they were, standing outside of Team Rocket HQ, arguing with the guard who wouldn't let them pass.

"I'm sorry, authorized personnel only past this point." The guard said.

"But we are authorized personnel!" Jesse yelled, "Field agents Jesse and James, here on business from Giovanni."

"Yeah, nice try." The guard said, "Like I haven't heard that before. You're wasting my time."

"We're not lying and we have the message to prove it!" James yelled as he pulled out the letter Giovanni had sent them.

The guard took the note, and only looked at it for a few seconds before saying

"This is typed."

"So?" Meowth asked, "It's still a legit letter."

"Maybe, but any dolt could simply print out a letter and say it was from Giovanni. Add in a little costume work and you get the scene right in front of me."

"We should be in the database. Jesse and James, doing field work in Sinnoh."

"Fine." The guard said. He then walked inside and locked the door. He returned a few minutes later, his face looking slightly red.

"Well, it appears you are supposed to be here. Sorry for the trouble." He said.

"Don't let it happen again!" Jesse said as she, James, and Meowth walked inside.

The trio walked through the halls of the Team Rocket HQ like they had so many times before. Only this time, the place looked a lot more intimidating than it had before. They almost felt like strangers in this careful professional place.

The trio walked up to the front desk, and addressed one of the secretaries there.

"Field agents Jesse and James, here to see Giovanni." Jesse said.

The secretary nodded at them, typed a few things in the computer, and replied:

"Yes, it appears he's been expecting you. He'll be ready in about an hour. Feel free to look around until then."

"Sure." Jesse replied.

"Also," the secretary added, "I saw your little dispute with the guard. I should mention that we've heightened security lately, and now you need a special badge if you want to go in as you please. We've had your badges ready for some time now, and you can find them in Supply Room 12."

Supply Room 12 was basically a room full of stuff that certain agents might need but there was no telling if they were ever going to return to HQ to get them. Naturally, there was a large section of the room dedicated to Miyamoto.

The trio got to the room with no trouble, and the caretaker was very cooperative with giving them the badges. Oddly enough, the caretaker didn't mention Miyamoto, despite the resemblance.

The badges were black, round, and completely blank. There was no way to tell they were Rocket Badges except for the fact that if you pressed a button on the back, a red 'R' would appear. And even then, the 'R' was invisible normally, and you needed a special tool, which every guard had, for it to appear. This seemed paranoid, but it quickly became commonplace as it wasn't really a hassle or anything to show it to the guards. The trio pocketed the badges and decided to take a stroll through the building.

The trio then took their time wandering through the headquarters where they were initially trained to be Team Rocket agents. They visited the physical training area, the psychological wing, and a dozen other places that they barely remembered. They were starting to feel more competent already, remembering all those days of getting stronger and sneakier.

But soon enough, the hour passed and the trio returned to the front desk, where the secretary from before directed them to the boss' office. Matori opened the door almost as soon as they got there.

"Giovanni is waiting for you." She said.

The trio nodded and stepped into the room. They noticed that there were three seats in front of Giovanni's desk, and sat down in them.

"Field agents Jesse, James, and Pokemon companion Meowth." Giovanni said, his voice calm, but somehow struck as if he were angry, "Do you know why you are here today?"

"We were hoping you could tell us." Meowth said, "It must have been pretty important if you needed us to come all the way from Sinnoh for it."

"You are correct on that count, it is quite important." Giovanni said. He reached to the side of the desk and picked up a folder. He set it in front of the trio and opened it up to the first page.

"Do you recognize this folder?" Giovanni asked.

"Its… it's our mission folder." Jesse said in what could only be described as nostalgia.

The mission folders contained detailed and summarized records of every mission that a field agent goes on. They were mainly for formalities and promotion requirements, but every agent fondly remembers putting the paper detailing a successful mission in their mission folder.

"Indeed it is." Giovanni said, "And this folder contains the highest percentage of successful missions in decades. I could look at this and say, without a doubt, that the agents who did these missions were truly spectacular."

The trio relaxed slightly at this. Whatever was coming to them, it didn't seem to be unemployment.

"It's quite sad though," Giovanni continued, "That the agents in this file and the agents before me are completely different people!" This last part was said in a loud tone, almost angry, and it scared the trio badly.

"But…" James stammered, "But we're the same people! We're not spies or anything!"

"The agents in this folder completed mission after mission, and almost never failed. They were punctual in their missions and were role models to the rest of Team Rocket. The agents I see right now haven't completed a single mission in years. They were sent to rob the Viridian City Pokemon Center, an easy mission for the three of them, and they not only completely failed, but started fruitlessly tailing a lone trainer, with their only official documentation of this being a crumpled letter sent through the mail written in crayon!"

Giovanni flipped to the last page of the folder and lifted up the paper. It read:

Field Agent Mission Report:

We are leaving on a very important mission to capture a powerful Pikachu, who a twerp owns.

Jesse, James, and Meowth.

The message was indeed written in crayon and looked like it had been crumpled once. The trio flinched upon looking at it, as it was painfully under whelming compared to their other reports.

"Not… our best work." Jesse said.

"The fact that some of Team Rocket's best agents produced this mission report sickens me." Giovanni said. "Do you three have anything to redeem yourselves? Any success, any monetary gain, any training?"

"Nope." The trio responded in uniform glumness.

"Then I guess that settles it." Giovanni said, "As of right now, Field agents Jesse, James, and their Pokemon companion Meowth, are no longer fit for duty."

The trio visibly sagged at hearing this. All they were waiting for now was a letter of recommendation for their next job, maybe helping that Christopher guy with his ramen shops.

Giovanni stood up and said, "You three are to remain at headquarters indefinitely. I will not let such talent you three surely possess to go to such waste. From now on, you will be placed on an intensive specialized training schedule, and you will be made to be the best agents Team Rocket has ever seen."

The trio couldn't believe their ears. The boss was actually giving them a second chance? They weren't a lost cause after all?

"You will be living in your regular quarters, along with everyone from training who are not in the field, and your belongings have been left untouched." Giovanni said, "Your new schedules will be found in your mail slots. I recommend you go and take a look at them. You are dismissed."

With that, the trio, still a little numb from… just about everything, stood up and walked outside, and all the way to their rooms.

* * *

Meanwhile, in the Sinnoh Region:

Ash and co. had just finished a rather exciting adventure involving an enraged mother Salamence who couldn't find her kids, and was terrorizing a random city in a frenzy. It turns out that a faction of Hunter J's forces had gone rogue after her death at Lake Valor, and had targeted a pack of Bagon and Shelgon, the children of the enraged Salamence. Ash and co. managed to find their base of operations and shut them down. The Salamence was extremely grateful to them, and decided to help out by providing them transportation.

And so Ash and co. managed to get to Sunnyshore City in record time, and only now had to figure out what was wrong with the gym.

* * *

Not too much to say here this time, but I think I will make one Ash update a chapter, just as a little break from the trio and their antics.


	3. Meetings

Team Rocket Triumphs, Chapter 3: Meetings

* * *

Disclaimer: I don't own anything from this fanfic. There is original content but I'm not getting money for this anyways so why bother saying I own it?

* * *

Mr. Carth woke up that day, and was pleasantly surprised to hear that the three agents coming to headquarters had finally arrived. It was his job to oversee their training, and all he had done for the past few days was study up on his notes. It stopped being fun after the first day.

He headed to his office and tidied things up. He turned on his computer and opened the most relevant documents, and, as an afterthought, went and got out some light snacks and set them on the table.

Soon enough, there was a knock on the door, and Mr. Carth opened the door to find, not the trio, but a specialist from a different section of the building.

"Hello," Mr. Carth said, "I assume you're Dr. Khaga, correct?"

The other man nodded slightly, "Yes, that would be me. I heard my patients arrived today."

"Yes, they should be here in a few hours." Mr. Carth said. "In the meantime, could you enlighten me on the aspects of your expertise? I've been a bit curious."

And so the hours passed, with Mr. Carth and Dr. Khaga chatting about their occupations, as well as the trio on occasions, until another knock came on the door, this time from the trio.

"The schedule says we're supposed to come here." Jesse said when Mr. Carth opened the door, "What are we going to do?"

"Good day, I am Mr. Carth. Giovanni has appointed me to be in charge of your retraining. This person to my left is Dr. Khaga, who's in charge of your session today. Dr. Khaga, if you would."

Dr. Khaga stepped forward. He had had this speech memorized days ago, "While you three were in the field, you reportedly had had many adventures of varying magnitude. You even went so far as to see high-ranking Legendaries on occasions. I am in charge of documenting all of these events, and then summarize them and send them off to some other people. From what I've heard of you three, this might take a while."

The trio looked slightly surprised, but soon recovered and Meowth said:

"You can count on us to dish out the details." He said cheerfully.

"Excellent." Dr. Khaga said as he pulled a laptop out of his bag, "Let's begin then."

The trio then recounted every time they'd been involved in anything, starting from day 1. They decided to be as honest as they could, even though it was quite depressing to repeatedly say that they lost to the twerps. They still managed to work in a bit of bias into their stories though, but that's to be expected from them.

The recounting took almost the entire day, and Mr. Carth watched in amused fascination. These three were going to be very interesting indeed.

* * *

"And then we got our hands on that Piplup when it wandered behind our bush, but that stupid Gible failed its Draco Meteor and it blew us away." Jesse said.

"We then got caught in some trees, and we were freed by a Rocket messenger's Scyther. We were then told to come to Headquarters in the letter the messenger gave us." James finished.

Dr. Khaga finished typing down the last few sentences, looked up and said:

"That's everything?" He asked.

"Every adventure we've ever had." Meowth confirmed.

"Then I will now take my leave," Dr. Khaga said as he put his laptop away, "Goodnight."

Dr. Khaga left the room, and the trio got up too.

"Well, it's been a good day." Jesse said.

"We'll be back here in the morning." James added.

"See to it you do." Mr. Carth said idly, "Oh, and Meowth, could I have a word with you?"

"Sure, doc!" Meowth said, then, turning to Jesse and James, "You guys go on ahead."

"Sure thing." James said as he and Jesse left for their rooms.

Once the door was shut, Mr. Carth turned back to Meowth.

"Meowth, I'm sure you understand that your schedule will be different from Jesse and James because you're a Pokemon, right?"

"Of course!" Meowth confirmed, "But, if you ask me, I wouldn't have any problems being a trainer myself. After all, it's not like we play by the rules here."

"Indeed we do not." Mr. Carth said, "And that is a good idea, incidentally. You seem like you could handle it. I'll go pitch the idea to Giovanni when he's available. But, that's not why I called you to stay behind."

"Then what's the matter?" Meowth asked.

"The problem is how your upbringing may affect the productivity of the team later on. As I recall, you have a tendency to fall in love with other feline Pokemon at first sight."

Meowth blushed, "Yeah, I guess I do get smitten sometimes. But that doesn't mean I'm going to hinder the team!"

"Perhaps not." Mr. Carth admitted, "But a number of those times you almost left Team Rocket for good. You also are showing a surprising reluctance to evolve. From what I recall, it is a matter of pride and resentment towards the Persian group leader you grew up with, as well as Giovanni's Persian."

"You're not going to convince me to evolve, if that's what you're thinking!" Meowth shouted, "I'd rather die than have to become like those obnoxious cats!"

"Relax, Meowth." Mr. Carth said, "I'm not going to force you to evolve. But, seeing as you appear to have had a large amount of emotional trauma, I set your schedule to include a psychiatric appointment in the evenings. I hope that's okay with you."

Meowth paused for a moment, thinking things through in his head. After a while, he spoke up:

"Fine," He said, "Just don't expect any miracles or anything."

"We'll see about that." Mr. Carth smiled, "Now, there's nothing else I need to discuss with you. Have a good night."

"Count on that!" Meowth said as he walked out the door and to his quarters.

* * *

It was morning again, and the trio was back at Mr. Carth's room. Today they were going to start their first day of regular training. But first, they had to catch up on the latest technology Team Rocket had to offer.

"In Orre, a far off desert region that's inhospitable to wild Pokemon," Mr. Carth said, "There's a criminal syndicate named Team Snagem."

"That's a stupid name." Jesse laughed.

"Trust me, there are worse." Mr. Carth assured, "But anyways, what made this team special was their development of a device that allows people to catch already caught Pokemon in their own Pokeballs." This was news to the trio, who had always thought you needed a cage or a net to steal a Pokemon that a trainer owned.

"Ooh, how does it work?" James asked.

"These Snag Machines are formed to fit the user's arm. There is a glove and a shoulder part, with a tube connecting them. You put the Pokeball in the shoulder part, it appears in the palm of your hand, and then you throw it." Mr. Carth explained, then, noting the enthusiasm in James' eyes, said, "James, I'll get you a blueprint of it later, if you want to look at it."

"So Team Snagem developed this technology," Mr. Carth continued, "And naturally, we took interest. We sent one of our best undercover agents to infiltrate their ranks and steal one of the Snag Machines. We reverse engineered it and started making copies for our own agents. We're also making copies for you, and they should be ready in a week or so."

"Excellent!" Jesse said, "This seems like it'll be a big step up."

"Heh, yes it will." Mr. Carth chuckled. "Now, before I take you to your training, I would like to mention that I pitched Meowth's suggestion to Giovanni yesterday, and he thinks it could work."

"What suggestion?" James asked. "I don't remember anything."

"Meowth suggested that he get his own team of Pokemon. I thought it might be possible, seeing as you're closer to human than any Pokemon I've ever seen. And Giovanni thinks it's worth a shot, so that's what we're going for."

Jesse and James exchanged looks, "Meowth, training Pokemon?" They asked simultaneously.

"I think it's a good idea." Meowth proclaimed, "If there's any Pokemon capable of training a team, it's me."

"You know, he's right." James said, "I can't believe I never thought of that!"

"We'll also be adding new, more powerful members to your teams later on, but for now, let's get started with the training."

* * *

I would like to mention that the Rocket Agent Mr. Carth said infiltrated Team Snagem was _not_ Wes; it was some nameless guy who will remain as such.

Team Rocket did look into the Shadow Pokemon concept, but once they realized Shadow Pokemon didn't get any stronger until they got purified they decided not to use it.

Yes, Meowth is going to get a team, and it will be every bit as awesome as Jesse and James'.


	4. Start of Retraining

Team Rocket Triumphs, Chapter 4: Start of Retraining

* * *

Disclaimer: I don't own anything from this fanfic. There is original content but I'm not getting money for this anyways so why bother saying I own it?

* * *

Mr. Carth led the trio into a room roughly the size of a classroom at a normal school. It had a projector hanging from the ceiling, a big roll-up projector screen that classrooms use, and a few podiums in a line along the back edge of the classroom.

The room was black, no doubt to indicate that the projector screen was the focus of attention and the walls and floor were irrelevant. On the podiums were screens tilted at an angle towards the people who would be standing at it.

Jesse, James, and Meowth walked forwards and stood at three different podiums, Meowth hopping on a rather tall stool so he stood at eye level to everyone.

"What exactly are we doing here?" Jesse asked, "I don't remember this from our first training."

Mr. Carth walked to the front of the room, picked up a remote from next to the screen, and turned on the projector. The screen was suddenly filled with the words 'Agent Knowledge Training'.

"Back when you were initially trained, you learned all your statistics in a large group of other agents. You're getting special treatment now, and I've set up this room specifically for you three."

"Statistics…" James murmured, "Oh, I remember now! This is where we memorize all the facts and knowledge about Pokemon so we don't get caught off guard by them!"

"Yes." Mr. Carth confirmed, "And we are doing this in sort of a game show form. A question about Pokemon will appear on the screen, and options will appear on your screens. You tell me the answer, some explanation for it, and you get it right or wrong. You can also say there is no correct option given and explain that too."

"So it's a quiz." Meowth stated, "Sounds easy enough."

"Appearances can be deceiving." Mr. Carth said, "Let's start on easy mode, just for a warm up."

He pressed a button on the remote, and a different screen appeared with a question on it.

"Which of these Pokemon is a Fire Type?"

The trio looked at their screens. On it was a picture of a Drifblim, a Ponyta, and an Electrike.

James was the first to answer.

"Ponyta." He said. "It's pure Fire Type."

Mr. Carth smiled, "What evidence is there to support that?"

"It has flames on its back, as Fire Types usually do."

Mr. Carth smiled again, "Well, you're correct, James. Are you all ready for the second question?"

The trio nodded, and Mr. Carth set the screen to the next slide.

"Which of these three Pokemon is a dual type, and what are its types?"

On the trio's screen was a picture of a Tangrowth, a Glalie, and a Girafarig.

James was the first to answer again.

"Tangrowth!" He declared, "It's dual Grass and Poison Type!"

"Interesting theory, but you are incorrect, James." Mr. Carth said, "Tangrowth is pure Grass Type. Anyone else?"

"Girafarig." Meowth said, "Part Psychic, part Normal."

"And you're correct. But what made you think that?" Mr. Carth asked.

"Simple." Meowth said, "I know Glalie's pure Ice Type, so it has to be Girafarig. Couple in the fact that it doesn't really resemble any type other than its Psychic Type and I decided it had to be part Normal Type."

"Excellent." Mr. Carth said, "Now, let's see how you guys do on a higher difficulty."

And so the trio spent a good portion of their day, answering general knowledge questions such as 'which of these three Pokemon would have the advantage in a fight?' and 'Which of these Pokemon evolves into Seviper?' among other things. Most of them had trouble at some points or another, and eventually came out of the session feeling a lot smarter than before.

Now, after a lunch break, the trio were supposed to be going on a physical training session. At this point, Mr. Carth called up one of the specialists for Jesse and James, and went to a different area for Meowth.

It was a large gymnasium-style room, with wood paneled floors and equipment set around the walls. There were a few doors in the room that no doubt led to supply closets. In the centre of the room were bull's-eye targets on poles.

"What am I doing here?" Meowth asked.

"You're receiving training." Mr. Carth replied, "You need to become strong if you want your own team. Your Pokemon simply won't respect you if you can't beat them in a battle. As it is, you're hardly a match for any foe, so we're here to remedy that. We decided that a good option would be to improve your moveset to be more versatile. From what I've heard, the moves Night Slash and Fire Punch are good starters."

"Who's this 'we' you keep on talking about?" Meowth asked.

"Ah yes, I suppose I forgot to mention that I'm not the one training you. That's far out of my area of expertise. Instead I got one of the professionals to help. Allow me to introduce Suime."

A few seconds passed, and nothing happened. Mr. Carth looked around and wondered out loud.

"Where is she? The appointment started a few minutes ago."

"Sorry I'm late!" a woman said as she burst through the doors. She stopped and caught her breath. "I got pulled over by a cop on the way here."

"Oh dear. What happened?" Mr. Carth asked.

"I was speeding." Suime replied, "I didn't want to be late."

"That's irony for you!" Meowth exclaimed, "Now, how about we get started on that training?"

Suime took a good look at Meowth, shook her head, and said:

"Did that Meowth just talk? And on that note, why is it standing on two legs?" She asked.

Mr. Carth shook his head, "Suime, I thought I gave you a report on Meowth last night. You didn't read it?"

Suime looked thoughtful, then dashed over to her office and rooted through a bunch of disorganized files until she found a folder labelled 'Meowth'. She opened it and started to skim the contents.

"That Suime is a little weird, don't you think?" Meowth asked.

"She's quite odd, yes." Mr. Carth said, "But nevertheless she's good at her job. She's never been fired since her oddities have rarely caused any serious problems. She knows what she's doing, so don't worry."

"Ok, I believe you." Meowth said.

"I'm back." Suime said as she walked back to Meowth and Mr. Carth. "You're a very odd Meowth, you know that?"

"I'm not all that special." Meowth said. "All I really did different was being more human than others. It only took some effort and determination."

"I see." Suime said, "I wonder if we could apply the same concept to other Pokemon. If it works, we could make serious advancements in all sorts of fields. But, what's relevant right now is the fact that you're trying to learn new moves. Now, first, and this is important, is what ability you have."

"My ability? What does that have to do with my moves?" Meowth asked.

"Meowth have two different abilities normally." Suime explained, "Pickup, where you acquire items from the ground after battles instinctively and with great prowess, and Technician, where low-power moves become stronger. If you have Technician, Faint Attack would probably be a better move for you."

"I don't remember picking up any items." Meowth said.

"Then, for now we'll assume you have Technician." Suime said, "So, do you still want to learn Night Slash, or do you want Faint Attack?"

"How about I just get started with Fire Punch and leave the rest for later?" Meowth asked.

Suime smirked. "Alright then. Let's get going! See those targets over there? Try to punch them, but imagine your fist is on fire. Imagery is key to learning new attacks."

"Ok." Meowth said, "So I just imagine my hand is on fire and charge."

Meowth then let out what was presumably a battle cry and ran towards the target. He jumped into the air, punched the target right in the bulls-eye, and… only succeeded in making his hand turn red and swell up.

"Owwww! My hand!" Meowth yelled as he stuck his hand in his mouth.

"Don't worry." Suime said as she grabbed a Potion from one of the tables along the wall, and sprayed it on Meowth's hand. "We can keep trying this way."

And Meowth spent a few more hours practicing Fire Punch; until he managed to get a flicker of flame accompany his punches.

"Hey, learning new moves isn't as hard as people make it out to be." Meowth exclaimed, "But still, it's only a small flame."

"Meowth." Suime said, "I think it's about time I gave you a Fire Gem. You know what those are, correct?"

"Not particularly." Meowth admitted.

"They increase the power of any type of move for one use. After a little research, we've found out they can help drastically when learning moves. So, for your next attempt, you'll have a Fire Gem. When you attack, it's very likely you'll pull off a full-fledged Fire Punch. Then, once you know what it feels like, you can master the technique all that much easier."

"Sounds like a plan!" Meowth said.

Suime then handed him a Fire Gem. Meowth held it in one hand, and made another charge at the target. This time, when he launched his fist forwards, the Fire Gem disappeared in a small flash of light and his hand burst into flames. His momentum carried him through the air and he smashed through the target, setting fire to it as well.

"Wow…" Meowth said afterwards as he looked at his hand. "I'm not even charred! So that's what a Fire Type move feels like."

Throughout his next few attempts, Meowth managed to get a flame on his hand for a second, but it would blink out before he hit the target. But hey, no one ever said learning new moves would be _that_ easy.

* * *

Elsewhere, Jesse and James were braving a challenging obstacle course… at least, challenging for them.

It turns out years of negligent exercise had made the reflexes and strength of Jesse and James worse than normal. They were having trouble on the easiest setting of the course.

It was fairly straightforward: They had to cross a small field of tripwires without crossing any, climb up a rocky hill, cross a hallway while avoiding trapdoors and pressure panel traps, all culminating in carefully taking a (surprisingly heavy) gold-painted Pokeball sculpture from its place without disturbing anything, and then making their way back to the beginning.

Currently, the duo had completely failed the tripwire field, had done surprisingly well on the rock climbing, and had set off most of the hidden traps but only survived because of determination, panic, and no small part luck.

In the end, they succeeded, but didn't do too well.

"Well well." Their new instructor said, "It appears you two have retained good reflexes and developed surprising pain tolerance… but your stealth leaves much to be desired."

"We… did the best we could." Jesse panted. "Those traps were just too difficult."

"Nonsense!" The instructor declared, "Even I could ace that course. But come with me, I'll show you another obstacle course that will really help you."

Jesse and James exchanged wary glances, but were forced to follow anyways when their instructor left the room.

Their new room didn't look too scary. It was a simple hallway with a metal floor, a few hills and uneven ground, but otherwise quite underwhelming.

"This is our special training?" James asked, "What's so special about it?"

Their instructor responded by pressing a button, causing panels in the ceiling to open up and two pairs of solid metal boots fall to the floor right in front of the duo.

"What's special about this course is that you will be wearing these boots." The instructor explained, "If you land on the ground too forcefully, you'll receive a strong electric shock. This exercise is to make you guys lighter on your feet."

"And we're supposed to take our time on this?" Jesse asked as she and James put on their boots.

"Actually, I'm just gonna send an Ursaring wearing rubber boots to chase you. Happy training!"

And with that, the instructor pressed another button and walked out through a door. Right after he left the wall behind the duo slid open and a large Ursaring, who was indeed wearing rubber boots, charged out at the duo.

Jesse and James ran, receiving many, many electric shocks and quite a few hits from the Ursaring.

"Just like old times, right Jesse?" James commented.

"Yup," Jesse said, "Just like old times."

* * *

Thanks to Team Rocket never being there to abduct Sunnyshore Tower, Ash spent a lot less time in Sunnyshore City than he would want.

Despite Flint's and his efforts, they never managed to convince Volkner battling was worth it. They did, however, manage to bug him enough to make him battle Ash just so he would go away.

It was a tough battle, with Ash coming down to just his Grotle against Volkner's Raichu, which had just finished knocking out Pikachu.

Grotle was getting low on energy, and it didn't help that Raichu was still going strong. It looked clear that Ash was going to lose… until Grotle evolved into Torterra, learned Earthquake, and beat Raichu in one move.

And thus Ash walked away with his eighth Sinnoh Gym Badge. He said goodbye to some people around town, and then Ash and co. hopped on their Salamence friend and started travelling to the Pokemon League for some training.

* * *

Meowth's Night Slash actually has some canon evidence behind it. He claims he's learning it in the episode Jumping Rocket Ship. I am also disregarding the ways Pokemon learn moves from the games since that's not how it works in the anime, and when I have a conflict like that I just choose what makes the most sense.

Meowth also tries to use Fire Punch (Despite not being able to know the move legitimately) in the episode Cream Of The Croagunk Crop. He fails, but I decided to run with it.

Also, if anyone's wondering why it was so easy for Meowth to learn Fire Punch, while Ash and supposedly others rarely, if ever, teach their Pokemon new moves quickly, my theory is that Ash spends too much time walking everywhere to pull off any special training (Or much training at all for that matter), and he doesn't have any special guidance to help learn them either.

I know I'm bad at making up names. Please forgive me.

Things should pick up soon as I make the trio go and catch new team members straight from the wild as little 'missions', which should start about next chapter.


	5. Field Work for Dummies

Team Rocket Triumphs, Chapter 5: Field Work for Dummies

* * *

Disclaimer: I don't own anything from this fanfic. There is original content but I'm not getting money for this anyways so why bother saying I own it?

* * *

Later the same day as the training, Meowth showed up to the room where he was supposed to go for his psychiatric appointment. He knocked on the door and was almost immediately greeted by an old man.

"Hello." He said, "You must be Meowth. I am Dr. Matgarnalouquaw, but please, call me Bob."

Meowth tentatively stepped inside. "Okay Bob." He said, "Um… do you mind if I just say something?"

"I don't mind at all." Bob said.

"Alright." Meowth said, "I know I have a few problems, and not all of them are completely rational, but after I come out of this room, I don't want to be a different Meowth. So, I'd appreciate it if there wasn't any mind control or anything."

Bob chuckled, "Don't worry Meowth, many previous patients have expressed the same concern, and they all came out with no regrets. Now, how about you take a seat."

Bob gestured to the hard wood chair in the middle of the room.

"That's it?" Meowth asked, "I thought you guys would be more into the flat cushiony chairs."

"Too stereotypical." Bob dismissed, "When people see those chairs, they tend to go into denial about their problems. So, I took the most ordinary chair I could find and decided to use that."

"Alright." Meowth said as he sat down. "Now, do you need to hear my life story or anything?"

"Not really, no." Bob said, "I got that summary of your adventures and some other background info from Dr. Khaga."

"So that's what he did with that stuff." Meowth commented.

Bob took his watch off his wrist and dangled it in front of Meowth's face.

"You are getting verrryyy sleeeeppppyyyyy." He said in a horribly accented voice.

Meowth blinked, "Was that supposed to do anything?"

"Not at all." Bob declared as he put his watch back on. "Now, you have a tendency to fall in love at first sight, correct?"

"Yeah, it happens every so often." Meowth said.

"I think it's safe to assume you know that doesn't happen with the typical Average Joe, so do you have any idea why that happens?"

"I think it's from back when I was a wild Pokemon." Meowth speculated, "I went so such lengths to impress a female Meowth named Meowzie, but in the end she rejected me."

"And that is why you attach yourself to other felines?" Bob asked. "Because of one rejection?"

"Now that you mention it…" Meowth said, "It does seem kinda odd."

"Why did you fall for Meowzie?" Bob asked, "Is it for the same reasons as the other ones?"

"No, I guess it was because… I was lonely." Meowth admitted, "I had my pals and all, but there was no one to love me."

"So you're afraid of being alone?" Bob asked, "Afraid of your friends abandoning you?"

"I'm not afraid!" Meowth exclaimed, "How could I be?"

"Right, my mistake." Bob said, "And because Meowzie rejected you, you kept your romantic feelings bottled up for other feline Pokemon?"

"I guess you could say that." Meowth admitted, "I never was one for giving up."

Bob reclined in his chair, "I think that's a trait we all share. No one likes losing, and definitely not on something as important as love. Hovever…" Bob leaned forwards now, "When the same thing happens so many times, you start to wonder if it really is love to begin with."

Meowth's face grew red and he yelled out: "I loved all of those Pokemon! How dare you accuse me otherwise!"

Bob looked at Meowth with a serious look in his eyes, "You loved _all_ of them? You had true love for Meowzie and the Skitty whose trainer you followed around and the other Skitty _and_ the Glameow?"

Meowth looked less certain now, "When you put it like that…" He said.

"True love doesn't come and go like your crushes do." Bob explained, "If they did, there would be no such thing as a lasting marriage. If it were true love all of those times, you would never, ever, have left them or found another Pokemon."

Meowth had tears forming in his eyes now, "Well what do you want me to do?!" He yelled. "You can't expect me to just give up on ever having a family!"

"A family with a wife you'll come to despise in a few years?" Bob inquired.

"I'd never despise my wife!" Meowth snapped.

"You would simply not believe how many people I've heard say that. Would you like to bet how many of them were right?" Bob asked tauntingly.

"I don't have to put up with this!" Meowth yelled as he stormed out the door, slamming it behind him.

Bob checked his watch. The appointment had taken less time than he expected. He turned to his computer and typed:

Subject: Meowth. Problem: Various emotional instabilities. Report 1

Meowth has shown extreme sensitivity to the validity of his crushes. I am certain they are not true love, but he has trouble accepting that.

I succeeded in getting him to pour his emotions out and I posed some tricky questions to him. He should spend the next few days mulling them over before he returns, which is good, since he doesn't seem like he wants to come back anytime soon.

Things are proceeding as planned. I should have this case wrapped up in about a month.

Bob Matgarnalouquaw.

* * *

The next day was training very similar to the first. The first session of it involved disguises, as Team Rocket had proven less than competent at that. They stayed in their costumes afterwards and had a little fun freaking out some of the new recruits by showing up for lunch as 3 Jesses, nearly indistinguishable from the real Jesse. (Meowth had to make some tricky adjustments to his height and arm length, but managed fine.)

Later in the afternoon, Meowth worked more on his Fire Punch and eventually perfected it. Jesse and James also got more stealth training from their instructor, this time involving walking over sleeping Pokemon, including Ursaring, Houndoom, Electrode, and many others. They actually got halfway through the field before an Exploud woke up and they had to run for their lives.

Meowth didn't show up for therapy that night, he was still upset about last night. He was a little surprised they didn't make him go anyways.

* * *

The day afterwards, all three of them showed up in Mr. Carth's room, like normal.

Mr. Carth smiled, "Today is where things get fun." He said, "Today, you will be going on two little 'missions' to catch a Pokemon from the wild. Both of them will be placed on your teams."

"Why not just give us the Pokemon that are going to be on our team instead?" Jesse asked.

"I guess I should explain, then." Mr. Carth said, "See, for years now Team Rocket has had their scientific divisions focused on the overall goal of making stronger trainers faster. We've made quite a few breakthroughs regarding the subject, and one of which is that when the trainer of a Pokemon is the one who caught it, they grow faster. That's one thing the ordinary trainers got right with their morals of friendship, I suppose."

"So we have to go and catch our own Pokemon all by ourselves?" Meowth asked. "What Pokemon are they anyways?"

"Gyarados and Crobat." Mr. Carth replied, "Or rather, Magikarp and Zubat, since another study has shown that Pokemon also grow well when caught young. Plus, we're not quite sure you three are ready to face down such tough foes." The trio nodded their heads in agreement.

"And that's what we're doing today?" James asked, "Catching a Magikarp and a Zubat?"

"Pretty much." Mr. Carth said, "You'll have someone on a radio communications with you to help guide you through the missions." The trio nodded.

"Where are we heading?" Jesse asked, "Magikarp and Zubat can be found nearly everywhere."

"For Magikarp, we are going to the Lake of Rage." Mr. Carth said, "Our little antics there have had a surprising affect on the Magikarp. You see, each Pokemon has genetic tendencies to favour certain stats over other stats. These are called Individual Values, or IVs. The Magikarp living in the Lake of Rage have managed to achieve completely maxed out IVs in every stat. They're still Magikarp, sure, but they'll be nearly unstoppable once they evolve."

James nodded, "And the Zubat?"

"Dark Cave, if for no other reason than it's the cave with the highest concentration of Zubat, so it'll be pretty inconspicuous for a trainer to catch one there. Now, if there are no more questions, your field director is waiting at the helicopter."

* * *

The trio were currently in the forest just outside the Lake of Rage. They had taken the helicopter close to it, but not close enough to attract attention.

As the trio walked through the forest, a silence fell over the group. It wasn't uncomfortable, but a simple silence.

"Do we deserve this?" Jesse broke the silence as she stepped over a large root.

"What, being left this far out?" James asked back.

"No, this whole special training thing." Jesse clarified, "Do you think we can meet Giovanni's expectations of us? I feel like we're going to be a big waste of resources."

"Hmm… Maybe that's why we have this special training in the first place; so we don't have to be such failures. I guess they just don't dedicate this amount of attention to everyone, since people are different, and some could easily be failures in their own right. We've just shown that we have potential in us from past experience. What say you, Meowth?"

Meowth, who had been silent this whole time, snapped his head up, "Uh, what you said."

As Jesse and James continued to talk about their potential and whether or not they have any, Meowth thought to himself. What Bob had said to him yesterday still bothered him.

_"When the same thing happens so many times, you start to wonder if it really is love to begin with."_

He shook his head. There was no way what he felt for those cats wasn't real! They had a connection, all of them. He could have fallen in love a million times and he'd still love them all truly!

_"True love doesn't come and go like your crushes do."_

Meowth's hands started to quiver, and he almost tripped over a root.

_"So you're afraid of being alone? Afraid of your friends abandoning you?"_

Meowth stopped walking.

"Hey guys?" He asked, "We're… we're always going to be together, right?"

Jesse and James stopped too, "Huh? Of course we are." Jesse responded, "We're Rockets, and we stick together!"

"Right!" James added.

Meowth shook his head, "No, I don't mean that. I mean even if we get fired, we're not going to just split up, right? I don't want… to be alone." Tears were starting to form in his eyes.

James crouched down to put his hand on Meowth's forehead, "Meowth, you should know by now that we're best friends, all of us. If all those electrical shocks from before haven't driven us apart, nothing will."

Meowth smiled, and wiped the tears from his eyes. "Thanks guys, that means a lot to me."

_"Is there anything wrong? You've stopped moving."_ Their field supervisor asked.

Their field supervisor was Dr. J. Malathi, although he requested he be called Mal. He was still in the helicopter, hovering a distance away and monitoring the area.

"No, we just started talking." James said into his mic.

_"Good, anyways, you should be approaching the lake soon."_ Mal said.

"Roger." James said.

The trio resumed walking in silence, and before long they spotted light filtering through the trees and dashed forwards, exiting the forest for the Lake of Rage.

There was a good 20-30 metres of grass between the wall of trees and the water. The grass was green, with flowers interspersed in it. The waters were clear and undisturbed, save for a Magikarp or two jumping out of the water in the distance.

The trio walked across the distance, and James got a fishing rod out of his backpack. He cast the line in the water and sat down.

"And now, we wait." James said.

"Not for long." A feminine voice to the trio's right called. "I challenge you to a battle!"

The trio turned and looked. The source of the voice was a girl, no doubt travelling on a journey, who was facing them with determination in her eyes. There was a Clefairy at her side, determination also in its eyes.

Jesse reached for a Pokeball, but Meowth stopped her.

"Relax, Jesse." He said, "I want to battle for a change."

Jesse withdrew her hand, "Are you sure? You don't usually like battling."

"Yeah, but I want to try out this new move I learned in actual battle." Meowth explained.

_"Seems like a good idea. You have time to kill anyways."_ Mal said.

The trainer now eyed Meowth with childish wonder. "Wow, a Meowth that walks and talks like a human!" She said, "I'm really glad you want to battle, it's not everyday you face an opponent like this. I'll use Clefairy, if you don't mind."

"Not at all." Meowth said, "By the way, what's your name? You never mentioned it."

"Nicole." She replied impatiently, "Now, can we just start the battle already?"

"Alright, alright." Meowth said, "Let's see how you like my Fury Swipes!"

Meowth's claws started to glow white as he ran towards the Clefairy.

"Clefairy, Iron Tail!" Nicole shouted.

Clefairy's tail started shining like metal, and it ran forwards towards Meowth, where she (The Clefairy is a girl) turned around and slammed her tail into Meowth's claws. There was a brief struggle, but it subsided when Meowth's arms flew back and Clefairy's tail slammed into his face, sending him flying backwards.

"Oof!" Meowth grunted as he landed, and climbed back to his feet. He then prepared another Fury Swipes and charged again.

"Iron Tail again!" Nicole commanded.

Clefairy's tail once again glowed metal and she ran forwards and turned around to strike. But this time, Meowth cleanly sidestepped the blow and lashed out at Clefairy's exposed side.

Clefairy landed on the ground and cringed, but got up again easily.

"Brick Break!" Nicole commanded. Clefairy's hand started to glow white as she ran back towards Meowth, who prepared another Fury Swipes.

They clashed, but Clefairy easily broke past Meowth's attack and struck him down.

Meowth winced from the damage he had taken, but stood up nonetheless.

"Alright, enough fooling around." He said, "Time for Fire Punch!"

Meowth ran forwards again, and his hand burst into flame.

"Clefairy, you use Fire Punch too!" Nicole said.

Clefairy's hand burst into flame too as she started to run towards Meowth again.

"Eh?" Meowth said as he blinked while moving. He recovered soon enough and hit his fist against Clefairy's. An explosion erupted from where their fists collided and a cloud of smoke covered the area. When it cleared, Clefairy was standing up and Meowth was face down on the ground, unmoving.

"I win!" Nicole cheered, "You're amazing, Clefairy."

"Darn." Meowth said as he stood up, "And I was really excited about learning Fire Punch too."

"Don't worry." Nicole said, "Clefairy here's just in a whole different league, that's all."

"Eh, don't worry about it." Meowth said, "I just learned the move anyways."

Jesse turned her head slightly away from the scene and whispered into the microphone.

"Do you think we should try to steal that Clefairy?" She asked.

_"No. That Clefairy is too strong, and who knows how many other Pokemon in hand. We don't want you to fail this mission, so just leave it be."_ Mal replied.

"Roger that." Jesse said.

At that moment, the fishing rod that James had kept one eye on started to rattle.

"We've got a bite!" James declared as he grabbed the rod and started to reel it in. He gave it a hearty yank and a Magikarp sailed through the air to land on the ground.

"Carnivine," James said as he tossed a Pokeball into the air, "Go battle!"

The Pokeball opened and Carnivine popped out. It then immediately reversed direction to clamp down on James head.

"When I said we've got a bite, I didn't mean this!" James whined as he pulled Carnivine off his head. Carnivine then reoriented on the Magikarp that James was indicating.

"Bullet Seed!" James commanded.

Carnivine opened his mouth and green orbs flew out at the Magikarp. It tried to flop out of the way, but only managed to fall down. It got hit with all of the bullets head on, and when the dust cleared it had swirls for eyes.

"Huh." James said. "That was easier than I thought. Now to capture it…"

_"Stop James."_ Mal said, _"Let Jesse catch this one."_

"Oh, right." James said, "Jesse, if you would."

Jesse reached for a spare Pokeball, "Okay then."

Jesse tossed the Pokeball at the Magikarp. The fish got sucked inside, and the ball wiggled once, twice, three times. And then it clicked shut.

Jesse walked over and picked up the Pokeball. "I caught a Magikarp!" She declared. Meowth snickered.

"What's so funny!?" Jesse demanded.

"Nothing." Meowth responded, "It's just that you said you caught a Magikarp, but that's not really something to be proud of."

Jesse responded by punching Meowth in the top of the head.

"Alright, we got what we came here for." She said, "Can we go now?"

"Sure." James agreed, "See you next time, Nicole." He looked over his shoulder, but there was no sign of Nicole or Clefairy nearby. "Huh." He said to himself, "How odd."

* * *

This time the helicopter landed right outside Dark Cave, since it wasn't frequented as much as places like the Lake of Rage, and Mal felt they wouldn't be long anyways.

The trio went into the cave with an industrial strength flashlight. They didn't have a Flash user and they were told that the cave lived up to its name. Also part of the equipment was a tablet with a map of the cave on it, so that Mal could guide them to the places where Zubats were most common.

_"Remember, catch a young one. They grow up best that way."_ Mal said.

"Yes, yes, we get it." Jesse said irritably into the radio. Then, to James and Meowth, "He's so annoying sometimes."

"He's okay." Meowth said, "Besides, I bet you had forgotten all about what he said." Jesse's eye twitched as she punched Meowth again.

The trio advanced further into the cave. They passed a small gathering of Geodude, but chose to ignore them since they were here for a Zubat. Mal gave them directions through the areas of the cave, and eventually they came to a big open area.

It was lit only by the flashlight they brought, but what they saw was beautiful. There were stalagmites scattered around the edge of the cavern, but not enough to become annoying or to block the view. There was a pool of sparkling water in one corner, and the rocks of the place looked smooth and natural…er than the rest of the cave. James shined the flashlight upwards, and illuminated a good hundred sleeping Zubat, seven Golbat, and a single Crobat.

When this happened, all of them woke up. The Zubat fled through the passages, thankfully. Whatever the trio did, they weren't prepared for facing a hundred Pokemon all at once.

The Crobat stayed in the back of the cave. The reason became evident when the trio saw that it was holding a blue and purple egg.

"Say, Jesse." James asked, "Wouldn't the youngest we could get be an egg?"

"That's as young as it gets." Jesse confirmed, "Alright, our goal is that egg!"

The Golbat woke up as well, but attacked the trio rather than flee.

At once, Jesse called out Seviper and Yanmega, while James called out Carnivine, who realized the situation and decided not to bite James for a change.

"Seviper, Bite, Yanmega, AncientPower!" Jesse called.

"Carnivine, Bite!" James called.

Seviper and Carnivine launched themselves at two of the Golbat, and Yanmega summoned orbs of light with brown lines swirling in them, and threw them at another.

Yanmega managed to take one of the Golbats out, but not for long, as it would get up in a minute to rejoin the battle. Seviper and Carnivine also brought their Golbats to the ground, and continued to battle them.

The other four, however, turned towards the trio. Their wings started to glow.

"They're using Wing Attack!" Meowth said, "Bring out Wobbuffet and Mime Jr.. We can't handle this alone!"

Wobbuffett popped out of its Pokeball before Jesse could reach for it, and Mime Jr. jumped forwards.

"Wobbuffett, prepare to use Counter. Mime Jr., use Mimic!" Meowth told them as he prepared a Fire Punch.

The Four Golbats charged. One of them focused on Wobbuffet, and, while he landed a direct hit, was then violently repulsed by the power of Wobbuffet's Counter. It flew through the air and hit a stalactite, knocking it out for a few hours.

Another one targeted Mime Jr., who responded by leaping towards it, her hands glowing the same shade of white (hey, don't ask me how a Mime Jr. is supposed to use Wing Attack). They both landed a hit and fell to the ground to get up in a few seconds.

The third one targeted Meowth. Meowth waited until it was nice and close to the ground, and then leaped at it and hit it with a Fire Punch. The Punch hit the skin on the wing and, with it injured; the Golbat fell to the ground, severely handicapped.

The last of the Golbat saw no other Pokemon and turned towards the two humans. Jesse and James turned and ran away from it, but it was faster than them. It gained on them fast, and only missed when Jesse and James fell to the ground and it swept over them. It soon turned around for another strike.

"Are they supposed to attack us? We're humans!" Jesse asked James as they stood up.

"We did invade their home." James shrugged, "Wouldn't you do the same?"

When the Golbat flew at them again, Wing Attack ready, Jesse and James stood their ground, glared at the Golbat, and, when it was close enough, _punched it in the face._

This didn't do much to stop it, however, and it ploughed right through them, knocking them to the ground a good few meters away.

Being hit by a physical Pokemon attack hurts more than you think it would. The attack, while not cutting Jesse or James, made them feel very much like their internal organs had been reorganized.

The Golbat responsible flew up and turned around for yet another attack. It started to swoop down, and it had Jesse and James in plain sight. The duo braced for impact…

Until Wobbuffet ran over and set up a Counter in front of them.

The Golbat slammed into Wobbuffet, and it looked like Wobbuffet was in a lot of pain, but it survived the attack and launched double the power back at the Golbat, sending it flying into the wall of the cavern, knocking it out. Soon afterwards, Wobbuffet collapsed from exhaustion.

"*Cough*, thanks Wobbuffet." Jesse said as she recalled Wobbuffet, "Take a *cough*, rest."

Meanwhile, Carnivine and Seviper were in a close quarters Bite contest with their respective Golbats. The Golbats were limited to Bite as their best move since Carnivine and Seviper weren't letting them get back into the air, where they had the advantage. Even still, the Golbats weren't pushovers, and the battle looked pretty even for now.

Mime Jr. had used Tickle on her Golbat, rendering it unable to battle for the duration of the attack, which could be a while, since Mime Jr. seemed to still have a lot of steam left in her. But Yanmega came over, lacking an enemy to fight, and launched a SonicBoom at the Golbat. The attack expertly missed Mime Jr. and hit the Golbat, and it fell unconscious from the cloud of dust that resulted.

The Golbat fighting Meowth actually had the advantage here; it used Confuse Ray on Meowth, causing him to see roughly twelve and a half Golbats surrounding him. He had charged up Fury Swipes, but was launching at blank air until the Golbat hit him from behind with Bite. Sadly, this only caused Meowth to turn to where the Bite came from, while the Golbat walked behind him to repeat the process.

This loop was broken when Yanmega hit the Golbat with an AncientPower, knocking it out. Yanmega also slapped Meowth with one of its wings, snapping him back to reality.

The Golbat that Yanmega had knocked out a minute earlier woke up again, and it stealthily launched a Wing Attack on Yanmega. The attack knocked it into a wall, and a few rocks landed on it. Yanmega wasn't going to be any help in the remainder of the fight.

Meowth took a flying leap at the Golbat, and hit it with a Bite. Mime Jr. also joined in with a Wing Attack Mimic, and together they took it out for real this time.

Back over with Seviper and Carnivine, Carnivine was laying unconscious on the ground thanks to his Golbat, who had just proved itself superior.

The Golbat looked around, and decided to take out the Mime Jr., since targeting Seviper left too much risk of hitting a fellow Golbat. It flew down with a Wing Attack, which Mime Jr. was all too happy to reciprocate. The Wing Attacks clashed, but Mime Jr. got sent flying back into James' arms, swirls for eyes.

Meowth noticed this, and quickly dispatched the already tired Golbat with a Fire Punch.

"Now that I'm getting the hang of it, this move's pretty useful." Meowth remarked.

"Meowth!" Jesse called as she and James rushed over. "Is everything alright?"

"Yanmega's in those rocks over there." Meowth told them, "And Carnivine's lying in a heap on the other side of the cavern. Seviper's handling the last Golbat, and there's still that Crobat in the corner."

Jesse quickly called Yanmega back, and James called Carnivine back too.

"Do you think Seviper can handle that Golbat?" James asked.

"I'd better go help, just in case." Meowth said.

Meowth then fell to all fours (to run faster), and ran to the other side of the cavern. He looked at the struggle that was Seviper and Golbat, and his fist burst into flame.

He jumped into the fray, and landed a hit on the last Golbat. This, combined with Seviper's Bite damage, finally knocked the Golbat out.

Once Seviper got himself out of the mess, all eyes turned towards the Crobat, who had finally come down from the corner of the cavern to right in front of the trio.

"Look." Jesse said, "Just hand over-"

"Shhhhh!" Meowth said as he covered Jesse's mouth. "Let's see if we can do this diplomatically."

Meowth turned towards the Crobat, "Hey buddy, listen. I know that we just beat up all your friends here, but believe me when I say I didn't want to, and neither did any of my comrades. Now, I know this might be a bit of a tricky problem, but we came here for that egg you have. I don't suppose you'd be willing to part with it without resorting to violence?"

The Crobat emitted a series of sounds. Meowth nodded and turned to Jesse and James, "She's not completely opposed to giving us the egg. This family's so big one child isn't really much of a difference. However, mama Crobat here isn't going to give it to us for free."

"Ask him what he wants." Jesse prompted.

The Crobat said something else. Meowth translated it as: "She wants us to promise to show the baby to her when it grows up."

"I'd say that sounds pretty reasonable." James said, "After all, it's her egg, she'd want to make sure it grew up properly."

Meowth turned to Crobat, "We agree to those terms."

In response, Crobat set the egg gently on the ground, where James picked it up.

"See ya later!" Meowth said to Crobat, who waved one of its wings back. Team Rocket walked out of the cavern the way they came in, and followed the path a ways back outside until this:

_"Hello? Oh, I've got a connection. Thank goodness!" Mal said through the radio, "You're all okay, right? I lost the signal when you went deep in the cave."_

"We're all safe." James replied, "We just had a pretty tough battle with a few Golbat, but we got a Zubat egg! All we had to agree to was to show it to the mother Crobat when it grows up."

_"An egg? That's good, much better than I honestly expected of you."_ Mal said, _"Get back to the helicopter, and that's a completed mission!"_

The trio hurried outside, and took the helicopter back to Team Rocket HQ. During the ride they relayed the events of the battle to Mal, who seemed genuinely impressed with them.

* * *

After stopping on a small island on the way to Lily of the Vally Island and having an adventure on it, Ash and co. got to the Sinnoh League. They got an early registration in, and Ash took to training in the practice fields.

During this training, his Buizel evolved into a Floatzel, and he used it in battle against a few other trainers who had gotten there early.

Currently, there was very little going on for the group, and it was pretty peaceful. At least, until Ash was approached by a man who introduced himself as Tobias, it was.

"Ash Ketchum." He said, "From Pallet Town, correct?"

"Uh, yeah." Ash replied, "Who are you?"

"I am Tobias." He said, "Look, I'm not in the mood for small talk, so I'll just tell you. You, me, and your rival Paul are clearly the three strongest in the league this year."

"Which of us is the strongest?" Ash asked eagerly.

"Doesn't matter." Tobias said, "The fact is that I won't let you or Paul compete this year."

Ash's eyes narrowed and he took a defensive stance, "Don't tell me you're going to force me to leave."

"Lily of the Valley Island will not be safe during the tournament." Tobias said, "I cannot get everyone to leave, but I will at least ensure that the three top trainers survive."

"And just leave behind all those other trainers?" Ash asked incredulously, "Why should I believe you anyways? For all I know you just want me out of the way so you can win easily."

"If that is what it takes, I will accompany you from here with Paul. But I must stress this; you are not competing in this tournament! I will drag your unconscious body away myself if I have to." Tobias declared, "You've only been training for a few years, and yet you've already managed to become strong enough to surpass people who have trained for decades. I wouldn't be able to face myself if I let such talent be squandered by some petty drive to win a competition."

"I still don't believe you." Ash said defiantly, "And what's this big threat you keep talking about?"

"An attack from a criminal organization." Tobias said, "You are familiar with the failure-trio of Team Rocket, right? Well, what's coming is absolutely nothing like those idiots. There is a high probability that people will die, and I will not let you be one of them."

Ash started looking unsure, "Could I at least talk it over with my friends first?" He asked.

"Of course." Tobias replied, "You can find me at apartment 108 once you have your answer."

With that, Tobias walked away silently.

Ash looked at Pikachu glumly. What was he supposed to do in a situation like this?

* * *

Agents Jesse and James: Observation Report 1

Subjects were at the Lake of Rage and deep within Dark Cave this day. They did not participate in any criminal activities, and for the most part were in perfect disguise as traveling trainers.

At the Lake of Rage, they caught a Magikarp. They must have plans for it, but it's no more dangerous than any other Magikarp.

In Dark Cave, they got in a large-scale fight with seven Golbat. They won, and left the cave with a Zubat egg.

My theory: They were sent to collect these new Pokemon as a simple test of talent. Perhaps, with their success, they will be doing full fieldwork again soon.

They were unaware of my observations. They suspect nothing.

Agent 37, out.

* * *

If anyone's wondering why Jesse didn't use Magikarp in the Dark Cave battle, it could be because it slipped her mind, or it could be because Magikarp was too weak for battle. Take your pick.

If anyone thinks that I've over-dramatized the capture of a mere Magikarp and Zubat, think about how easy it was to catch Magikarp, and the 'capture' of Zubat involved taking down 7 Golbat, which was a tricky challenge.

Agent 37? Lily of the Valley Island not safe? Sounds like some real plot if you ask me.

I changed the rating to T because I thought that Golbat Wing Attacking Jesse and James, along with Tobias talking about people dying was a bit much for K+. I let my writing dictate the rating, not the other way around.

Next time, you can look forwards to some more training of their newly acquired Pokemon.


	6. Pokemon Strategist

Team Rocket Triumphs, Chapter 6: Pokemon Strategist

* * *

Disclaimer: I don't own anything from this fanfic. There is original content but I'm not getting money for this anyways so why bother saying I own it?

* * *

After getting back to HQ and submitting a report of their mission, James (who was given ownership of the Zubat egg to balance Jesse's Magikarp) took the egg to one of the science labs for some basic checks of health.

"Well, everything looks to be alright with the little guy." The lead scientist in the lab said, "We did some more tests, and found that it is in fact a male Zubat, but that is simple trivia, really."

"Thank you, I'll be leaving now." James said as he picked up the egg and headed out.

_"I have to carry this egg around until it hatches." _James thought. Sure, he was happy he was getting a new Pokemon, but who knows how long he'd have to effectively carry a rock wherever he went? At least he got one of those egg-carrying containers so he doesn't have to worry about dropping and breaking it.

James sighed and headed back to his room for the night as he wondered when the egg would hatch.

* * *

Meanwhile, Meowth showed up at the psychiatric room again.

"Hello Meowth." Bob said cheerily as Meowth walked through the door, "I assume you're ready for another session?"

Meowth sat down in the nondescript chair in the middle of the room, "Yeah. I thought over what you said about me, and I'm pretty sure I overreacted."

"Nine out of ten of my patients storm out of my room on the first session. I don't take it personally anymore." Bob said, "But you say you thought over what I said. Did you come to any other conclusions?"

Meowth fidgeted, "I think…" he started, "You may… have had… a point when you said those things."

"Right now, that's up to you to decide." Bob replied, "What kind of psychiatrist would I be if I told you that your mind was messed up and that you had to conform to my reasoning?"

"Not a very good one." Meowth said.

"Precisely!" Bob said, "But anyways, we should get started again. I did a little searching, and I identified what makes you attach yourself to those feline Pokemon. It's called attachment type B-Secure. You were left alone and deprived of someone to take care of you when you were young. When you came to Team Rocket, you became attached to Giovanni when he showed favour to you, as you subconsciously regarded him as a father figure. You felt betrayed when he replaced you with Persian, but you now attach yourself to Jesse and James. You've grown mostly out of your need for a father figure, but the scars of deprivation remain, and you still feel like you could lose Jesse and James like you lost Giovanni."

Meowth stared at him and blinked, "I'm sorry." He said, "I'm not sure I follow."

"You had no one to care for you while you were a child, and so you made Giovanni your 'father' subconsciously. You felt betrayed when he got Persian, and you now bonded with Jesse and James." Bob simplified.

This time Meowth nodded, "Okay, I think I get it now."

"The root of your problem is that you were alone as a child. You became independent, but the deprivation of parents took its toll. You need to work past your feelings that stem from that moment before you can truly surpass your problems." Bob explained.

"Well how do I do that?" Meowth complained.

"I recommend you get in the habit of relying on others more." Bob said, "You became independent, but in a way that means you have trouble trusting others with things you can do yourself. Start relying on your friends, and do it enough so that it becomes a subconscious attitude."

Meowth pondered this for a moment, "Sounds simple enough. I'll do it."

"Good." Bob said, "That will be all for today, you're free to go."

Meowth got up and left the room. Bob turned to his computer and began to type again.

Subject: Meowth. Problem: Various emotional instabilities. Report 2

Meowth has calmed down and is willing to accept his rage as folly. I directed the topic away from his crushes to avoid prodding a wound.

He was much more agreeable this time, no doubt because I was not pressuring him. I worked through his past and told him some logical conclusions.

I told him to rely on others more in order to start to work through his emotional troubles from the source of them.

Bob Matgarnalouquaw.

* * *

The next day, the trio went to their 'classroom', where they learned about a Pokemon Species' superiority in certain stats over other species, such as a Gyarados being a Physical Attacker while Milotic was a Special Attacker. These questions were much harder than other ones had been, but they came out of it with an overall better understanding of which Pokemon excelled in which aspects.

The trio split into three different groups this time. James went to his physical training like usual, and Meowth went with Mr. Carth to the gym where he practiced moves.

Jesse was attending a class to help her evolve Magikarp.

"This is the right place." Jesse mumbled to herself as she approached the door. She didn't hesitate to open it.

Inside was a recessed water battlefield in the middle of the room. There were three other Rocket Agents around the room, examining the notes on the wall or talking with the instructor.

The instructor was wearing a lab coat despite the room being a battlefield area, and he had a clipboard at his side. Other than that, he looked pretty friendly, and he seemed quite enthusiastic about whatever he was explaining about to one of the Agents.

"Ah, Jesse!" The instructor said as he turned around and noticed Jesse, "Now that everyone's here, let's begin our session!"

The three Rocket Agents grouped together in front of the instructor, and Jesse did the same.

"I, as some of you may already know, am Professor Vistra." He explained, "This class is for those of you who have joined the team with a Magikarp in your possession, or have recently caught one during your field work."

"As you probably know," Vistra continued, "Magikarp is just about the weakest Pokemon known to the world. If you didn't know that, you are most likely an idiot! But Magikarp are far from useless when they evolve, as when they do, they become a destructive machine of power known as Gyarados. Clearly, it is in our best interest to evolve these fish as soon as possible. Sadly, Magikarp are so weak that even if you put them up against any other Pokemon, they will inevitably lose. Which is why we need these special training sessions, and why I still have a job."

None of the Rocket Agents smiled at the humour, mainly because of their strict training. Jesse didn't laugh because she didn't think it was very funny.

"Today, since a Magikarp vs. Magikarp battle would be impractical, we are going to team all four of your Magikarp up against one of Team Rocket's spare Pokemon." Vistra said, "This way, even the Magikarp who are so weak they cannot even use Tackle can still, with some clever strategy, be of some use during the fights."

"And what if none of our Magikarp can use Tackle?" Jesse asked.

"Improvise!" Vistra exclaimed, "It doesn't have to be an actual attack to do damage to an opponent. Now, before we start, we need some introductions, and since I hate it when things like these drag on for too long, from my right to left are Jesse, Rob, Mana, and Seta."

Vistra then walked to the other end of the pool and took a Pokeball from the table over there. He tossed it in the air and a Remoraid appeared and splashed into the water.

The four agents took the clue and released their Magikarp. All four of them entered the pool simultaneously, and each agent started to keep a close eye on which one was theirs.

"Magikarp, use Tackle!" All four agents called.

Two of the Magikarp started to rush forwards, but the other two, one of which was Jesse's, just turned around and looked at their trainers in confusion.

"Remoraid, use Water Gun!" Vistra commanded.

"Just get in close." Jesse told her Magikarp, "You're no use all the way on this side of the field."

"Same to you, Magikarp!" Seta called out.

As Jesse and Seta's Magikarp started to swim over to the Remoraid, the other two approached much quicker. The Remoraid, however, shot a blast of pressurized air at one of the approaching Magikarp, and knocked it away.

The other Magikarp, which just happened to be Rob's, managed to get close enough to land a hit on Remoraid. The smaller fish was sent a ways back, but didn't seem to take much damage.

"Splash!" Jesse and Seta called to their Magikarp.

The two Magikarp leaped up in the air and landed back down in the water, causing the water in the pool to swell erratically.

"Keep it up!" Jesse shouted.

"You too!" Seta said.

Vistra looked pleased, "Psybeam!" He called.

Remoraid shot a beam of pinkish energy from its forehead at Rob's Magikarp, who had turned around to take another shot. It landed easily, and the Magikarp got sent flying.

But Mana's Magikarp, which had been sent back by the Water Gun, managed to catch the Remoraid on the downward part of a wave as it used Tackle again.

"Use Psybeam again!" Vistra said.

Remoraid shot another pinkish beam at Mana's Magikarp, but the fish had gotten behind a wave, which shielded it from damage.

Jesse growled to herself. All she could do was have her Magikarp keep up the waves. She needed to help more than that.

But what could she do? Magikarp was only good for Splash right now. Unless things got really desperate, Magikarp would probably only get in the way.

Frustrated, Jesse ground her teeth and kept silent.

Meanwhile, Vistra had adopted a new strategy of having Remoraid using Lock On before using Psybeam, ensuring hits. This led to Remoraid taking about twice as many hits as usual, but Psybeams were powerful in relation to the Magikarp. Soon enough, Rob's Magikarp stopped attacking as swirls replaced its eyes.

As Rob called Magikarp back, Jesse realized that the Splashing was doing little good now.

"Swim in towards Remoraid and get in the way!" Jesse called.

Jesse's Magikarp dutifully stopped splashing and started to chaotically loop around Remoraid, making it even harder to focus as Mana's Magikarp continued to land Tackles.

In the end, Remoraid managed to take out Mana's Magikarp, and then, since Jesse and Seta were unable to concoct a proper strategy utilizing only Splash, Remoraid dispatched them too.

For the rest of the afternoon, Mana and Rob battled more against trainer-undirected various Water Pokemon, while Vistra tutored Jesse and Rob's Magikarp to learn Tackle.

* * *

James was doing strength training today.

"Mr. Instructor." James said, "Isn't this the stealth course from my first time?"

The instructor glanced at the virtually flat metal course, "Sure is." He replied.

"I thought we were doing strength training." James said.

"We are." The instructor said, "The suit will be here in a minute. The guy bringing it over had to take a break since it was so heavy."

James gulped.

A few minutes later, a random Rocket Worker wheeled into the room a full suit of metal plate armour. James gawked at it, "I'm supposed to wear that?" He asked.

"You're supposed to run the course in that." The instructor said, "Don't worry, I'm pretty sure I set the pressure sensitivity for the shocks down."

James didn't look happy, but he climbed into the suit anyways, "Please tell me there's no Ursaring this time." He begged.

"Sorry to disappoint." The instructor shrugged as he pressed a button and stepped to the side. The wall opened again and two rubber-boot clad Ursaring started to chase James.

* * *

Meowth and Mr. Carth arrived at the gym area, where Suime was waiting for them.

"Meowth, you've arrived." She said, "Listen, I started a training program with some of our spare Pokemon to see if we can replicate your walking and talking."

"Cool." Meowth said, "What Pokemon are you trying it on?"

"Right now, we've got a Houndour and a Shinx learning to walk, and we've got a Zigzagoon and a Squirtle learning to talk."

"Sounds interesting." Meowth said, "Now, I've finished Fire Punch, what should I learn now?"

"You would do well to learn a long range attack." Mr. Carth said, "Perhaps Thunderbolt?"

A chill went down Meowth's spine, "Reminds me of that Pikachu." He said, a bit shaken.

"All the more reason to learn it, so you won't fear it anymore." Suime noted, "Now, seeing as you've been hit by it so many times, you probably know what it's like to have electricity flowing through your body."

"Vividly." Meowth commented.

"Great." Suime said, "So, all you have to do is concentrate that imagination of energy and imagine you're shooting a Thunderbolt like that Pikachu."

Meowth walked over to where the targets were. He closed his eyes and concentrated, He thought about all the times he was shocked, how they felt. He did his best to separate the feelings of electricity and the feelings of pain, and to focus on the electricity.

Little strands of electricity started to spark around him, especially from the coin on his forehead. Meowth noticed this, and he was about to fire the attack until a sharp pang of fear struck his heart. He stopped focusing, and the electricity dispersed into the local air.

"Oh, dear." Suime said, "And it was going so well, too. Should I get out an Electric Gem?"

"I couldn't." Meowth said to himself, "I couldn't bring myself to do it. I had the power going and everything, but I just couldn't."

"You've grown phobic of electric attacks." Mr. Carth said, "Suime, you probably should get out a gem. If Meowth is to overcome his fear, he needs to be able to use the move safely for once first."

Suime hurried to the storage room to grab an Electric Gem.

"I guess… I guess I'll never be a match for that Pikachu." Meowth muttered.

"Meowth." Mr. Carth said, "Stop being so overly dramatic. It's understandable to have a fear of channelling electricity after being a conduit for it hundreds of times before, but that in no way means you're inferior to Pikachu or that you're not going to perfect this technique. Heck, that's why you're here, to teach you new moves."

Meowth shook his head and straightened up, "Sorry, I guess I got sucked into the moment."

Suime came back from the room, yellow gem in hand.

"This time, I want you to pull off the move as soon as possible, so you don't end up hesitating." Suime said as she handed the Gem to Meowth.

"Got it." Meowth nodded as he closed his eyes and concentrated again. He pictured the electricity flowing through his body, and he felt the Electric Gem disappear from his hand. Not wasting a second, he directed the energy towards the coin on his forehead and expelled it from his body in one stream.

From the perspective of Mr. Carth and Suime, an electric 'aura' surrounded Meowth, and a beam of electricity shot from the aura to hit the target. The bulls-eye target exploded from the attack.

"Wow." Meowth said as he opened his eyes, "That didn't hurt at all."

"It's a move." Mr. Carth said, "It shouldn't hurt any more than using Fire Punch."

And the rest of the afternoon for them was spent perfecting Thunderbolt. Since Meowth already seemed to have a good grasp on it, he had mastered it before the day was out. He tried to go to Bob that night, but Bob told him he was especially busy tonight and that Meowth should come back the next day.

* * *

The trio had gathered in Mr. Carth's room the next day, eagerly eyeing the cool looking arm attachments on the table.

Their shoulder part looked like armour. It had a pointed end sticking out to the side, and the front had a blue circle at the bottom of it. It was curved on top, was black in colour and lined with red. There was a red strap that went around the shoulder at the start of the arm.

The hand part looked like an extension of a sleeve. It met around the wrist, and the part that went behind the hand extended far past the hand and ended in an edge. It was curved like the shoulder part too, but less so. It was black lined with red, but there was a red line separating the gauntlet into two segments. Joining the shoulder and gauntlet was a coiled red tube that looked as if it were to spiral along the arm.

There were two of them, and Jesse and James were looking at them as if it was Christmas.

"Your Snag Machines finally came in." Mr. Carth said, "Due to how they function, they have to be specially moulded for each wearer. The one on the left is James', and the one on the right is Jesse's."

Without delay, Jesse and James snatched up their respective Snag Machines and put them on. If you were watching the scene, you would notice they looked at least 5x cooler now.

"You will be wearing these as you go into the field." Mr. Carth explained, "It will help you steal Pokemon from other trainers in the middle of a battle while you are still incognito as average trainers. If you ever need to hide them we can provide a jacket with ridiculously long sleeves. On that note, today you're going on another field mission. Jesse is going to catch a Shroomish from the Petalburg Woods in the Hoenn Region, and James is going to catch a Horsea from one of the many bodies of water in our Kanto Region. As a side-mission, you are going to try to steal Pokemon from wandering trainers if you have the chance."

Jesse and James nodded eagerly, happy about this assignment.

"Oh, one last thing." Mr. Carth said, "Jesse, try to use Magikarp as often as you can, it needs the experience. Now, Mal's waiting at the helicopter for us. We have a plane to catch if we want to get to the Hoenn Region."

* * *

One helicopter ride and one plane ride later, Jesse and James had left Petalburg City, where the airport was, and were close to Petalburg Woods.

Mal had stayed behind in Kanto, but managed to keep track of the trio thanks to him hacking satellites or whatever he managed to do.

"Apparently there are Shroomish in the woods, and I'm going to get one because they evolve into Breloom." Jesse stated the obvious, "Remember when I got Dustox here?"

"Yes." James replied, "If I'm correct, you got in a big squabble with that twerpette about catching a Wurmple. Then you got more upset when your Wurmple evolved into a Cascoon instead of a Silcoon."

Jesse's eye twitched and she hit James, "I was not that upset!" She declared.

"You were on the verge of exploding." James mumbled.

Jesse inhaled and exhaled deeply, "Anyways, we're back here and supposed to get a Shroomish. With any luck this won't be too difficult."

"With our luck, it will be." James pointed out.

"Nonsense!" Meowth said, "We're getting the professional treatment now! There's no way we can mess this one up after we've been doing so good."

The trio then reached the woods, and entered them.

They continued further inside, keeping a wary eye open for a Shroomish. Eventually, they saw one sleeping on a low tree branch.

"Go Magikarp and Seviper!" Jesse called as she tossed their respective Pokeballs.

As Magikarp and Seviper appeared in front of the tree, the Shroomish woke up. It looked at the two Pokemon in front of it, and jumped off the tree.

"Magikarp, use Tackle!" Jesse ordered.

Magikarp then started to hop forwards towards the Shroomish, who used Tackle too and collided with Magikarp. Magikarp was easily overpowered and fell backwards.

"Return, Magikarp." Jesse shook her head, "Now, Seviper, use Poison Tail!"

Seviper's tail glowed purple as it lashed out at the Shroomish. The Shroomish tried to dodge, but the attack connected anyways. Shroomish was launched backward from the force of the blast and it hit the tree.

Shrromish then spat a seed out of its mouth at Seviper, who didn't notice it until it landed and leaves spread from it to cover his body.

"Leech Seed." Jesse observed, "Just use Poison Tail again!"

Seviper's tail glowed purple again, and it struck from above at the Shroomish. When the dust cleared, the Shroomish was lying unmoving with swirls for eyes.

"Now, Pokeball!" Jesse shouted as she tossed a Pokeball at the Shroomish. It connected with the Shroomish, and sucked it inside. The ball wiggled a few times, and then stopped moving with a ding.

"Stop right there!" A voice behind the trio called as Jesse picked up the Pokeball, "That's my Shroomish!"

"Oh, it is?" Jesse said, and then looked at her Snag Machine, "I guess these things really work then."

"What are you talking about?" The person asked as he stepped into view, "I've been tracking that Shroomish for hours so I could catch it myself!"

The trainer was wearing a green sweater and light grey pants, and he had brown hair. He looked to be about 16 or 17.

"So, what you're saying is that you want this little guy?" Jesse taunted as she spun Shroomish's Pokeball on her finger, "Sorry, but you're out of luck. This Shroomish is mine now and forever. Go get another one, it shouldn't be too hard."

"But I need to have that specific one!" The trainer complained, "I'm Jonathan, and I'm a Pokemon Strategist! I catch and train my Pokemon solely based on using them in complex strategies. That Shroomish has Poison Heal, and it may very well be the only one in this forest that doesn't have that darn Effect Spore!"

"_Jesse, this is your chance."_ Mal said through their communications, _"You can offer to battle him for the Shroomish, and then steal his Pokemon!"_

Jesse smirked, "Alright, Jonathan." She said, "Let's have a battle. Three against three, and the winner keeps Shroomish."

Jonathan reached for a Pokeball, "You're on! Let's make it a double battle though." He said.

"Fine." Jesse dismissed, "Yanmega, get in there!" She said as she tossed Yanmega's Pokeball out.

"Go, Graveler and Gastly!" Jonathan called.

James stepped to the middle of the battlefield at the side, "Begin!" He shouted.

"Stealth Rock and Curse on Yanmega!" Jonathan yelled instantly. Graveler shot pointed stones into the other side of the field, and Gastly emanated an evil power, which covered Yanmega in a foul aura.

"Seviper, Bite Gastly!" Jesse called. As Gastly was busy performing the Curse, Seviper's Bite hit it.

"Shadow Ball!" Jonathan said, and then to Graveler, "Rock Polish!"

"Steel Wing Graveler!" Jesse told Yanmega.

Gastly formed a black ball in his mouth and fired it behind him to hit Seviper and knock it off. Graveler started to shine as all the bumps and rocks on its surface smoothed off, leaving him a smooth sphere. Yanmega's wings glowed steel-y and she struck Graveler, sending him flying back. Yanmega then cringed as a black aura surrounded it for a second, and the Curse hurt it.

"Graveler, Earthquake!" Jonathan commanded, "Gastly, Sucker Punch Yanmega!"

"Yanmega, Steel Wing again!" Jesse commanded at the same time, "Seviper, Bite again!"

Graveler sent seismic pulses through the ground. Gastly and Yanmega were unaffected, but Seviper got the full brunt of the attack. His Bite attack diffused before it finished charging and he got thrown backwards. He still managed to get up though.

Yanmega started to use Steel Wing again, but Gastly appeared out of nowhere and slammed into her. Yanmega, while hurt, still managed to hit Graveler with Steel Wing. The black aura emerged again, and Yanmega's flight faltered for a moment.

Jesse's eye flashed, now was her chance. Jonathan only smirked.

"Graveler, SelfDestruct!" Jonathan called.

But, before Graveler could even move, a Pokeball appeared in Jesse's Snag Machine hand. It was glowing a bit, and Jesse threw it as fast as she could at the Graveler.

The Pokeball hit Graveler, and landed on the ground. It wiggled, and eventually clicked shut. Jonathan's eyes went wide.

"You- you what?" He babbled, "Did you just catch my Graveler? But, but you cant! He's mine, and… and you shouldn't be able to _just_ _catch it like that!_"

Meanwhile, Meowth silently slipped around to the Pokaball and picked it up. He rushed over to Jesse and handed it to her.

"Looks like the stakes are a little higher." Jesse taunted, "Are you willing to fight to get your precious Graveler back? Oh, and you still have to play by the rules if you don't want us to just leave."

Jonathan had tears forming now, "I can't let you just keep him! Go, Kecleon!" He tossed out another Pokeball, containing a Kecleon.

"Battle, continue!" James declared.

"Kecleon, Substitute! Gastly, Confuse Ray Seviper!" Jonathan called.

"Yanmega, Ancientpower Gastly, Seviper Bite Gastly too!" Jesse called.

Kecleon vanished in a puff of smoke as a creepy Pokedoll was put in his place. Gastly struck first as she sent waves of confusion at Seviper and messed up his brain. Yanmega's attack still hit properly, though, and Gastly was sent to the ground. Yanmega was covered by the dark aura again, and this time fell to the ground unconscious.

"I'm not letting you get this one!" Jonathan yelled as he reached for Gastly's Pokeball.

James smiled, "Too slow." he said as he lobbed a Snag Ball he had prepared earlier through the air.

"No!" Jonathan shouted as he sent the recall beam at Gastly. Unfortunately for him, the Snag Ball reached there first. The Gastly got sucked in, and a resounding ding sealed her fate.

Jonathan made a dive for the ball, but Meowth stepped in and zapped him with a Thunderbolt, stopping his leap and causing him to fall to the ground. Meowth then picked up the ball and handed it to James.

"Thanks, Meowth." James said as he pocketed the Pokeball.

"Now, are you going to continue or just hand over your Kecleon?" Jesse asked.

Jonathan was crying now, "You think… I'll just let you walk away… after what you've done to my friends!?" He yelled, "I will never surrender!"

"_Idiot"_ Jesse thought. She pulled out Yanmega's Pokeball, "Yanmega, return!" She said.

"Go, Wobbuffet!" Jesse called as she sent out Wobbuffet. The stones from Stealth Rock glowed, and beams of energy hit Wobbuffet.

"Kecleon, use Slash on Seviper!" Jonathan called.

"Seviper, use Poison Tail!" Jesse smugly said.

The Pokedoll somehow stood up and charged at Seviper, who blinked a few times to orient himself thanks to the confusion, and made his tail glow purple and slithered towards the doll. The Pokedoll struck first, and for a fleeting second the doll disappeared and you could see that it was Kecleon using Slash.

Seviper reeled in pain, but struck with Poison Tail nonetheless. It smashed into the Substitute, and the Substitute blew up in a cloud of smoke, revealing Kecleon.

"Faint Attack Seviper!" Jonathan yelled.

"Bite!" Jesse called.

Kecleon started running towards Seviper, as Seviper slithered towards Kecleon. As they drew close, Kecleon vanished into darkness and reappeared instantly behind Seviper, where he jabbed a claw surrounded by darkness at Seviper. The attack was just enough to knock Seviper out.

"Seviper, return." Jesse said as she called Seviper back, "Everything rests on you, Wobbuffet."

"Substitute!" Jonathan called.

Kecleon vanished into thin air and a Pokedoll took his place again.

"Shadow Sneak!" Jonathan continued.

"Counter!" Jesse told Wobbuffet, who promptly braced himself.

The Pokedoll stayed still, but its shadow, which was shaped like a Kecleon's, moved to behind Wobbuffet. It then extended a hand and hit Wobbuffet with Ghost energy. Wobbuffet cringed a little, but released the power from the attack back at the Pokedoll twofold as a wave of power.

The wave collided, and the Pokedoll exploded again to reveal Kecleon.

"Faint Attack!" Jonathan yelled in desperation.

"Counter again!" Jesse commanded. While she watched, she loaded another Snag Ball into the Snag Machine.

Kecleon rushed forwards again, and, just before colliding with Wobbuffet, vanished into darkness, reappeared behind Wobbuffet, and struck him.

Wobbuffet cringed harder this time, but used Counter anyways. The blast hit Kecleon from point-blank range, and sent it flying backwards to Jesse's feet.

Jonathan's heart almost stopped. He already had Kecleon's Pokeball in his hand, and aimed it at the fallen Pokemon, but Jesse leaned down and tapped the ball on Kecleon's forehead. Kecleon slipped inside and, after three wiggles, a ding signified its new owner.

Jonathan fell to his knees, tears freely streaming from his eyes. Three of his best Pokemon, all gone in a few short minutes. All of the anger he had had during the end of the battle had vanished, only to be replaced with hopelessness. He had a few other Pokemon, sure, but those three were his favourites and best in battle.

While Jonathan was processing this, the trio decided there was no more point to sticking around and left the woods.

"_Three snags in your first battle! Quite an impressive accomplishment indeed."_ Mal praised, _"And that Jonathan was right, Poison Heal is a very useful ability when applied properly. You were lucky to come across that one."_

"I feel so accomplished!" James exclaimed, "We're already becoming successful at being criminals!"

"Hey, I wonder if that Jonathan guy's gonna be okay." Meowth noted, "He seemed pretty messed up when we left."

"Ah, who cares about him?" Jesse dismissed.

At that exact second, a heavy tree branch above Jonathan (who was just about ready to stand up again) snapped off and fell on his head, knocking him out. Poor guy.

"The point is that we succeeded in our mission!" Jesse declared.

"_Great."_ Mal said, _"Now, I'm arranging your transportation back to Kanto, you should be able to take a plane shortly after you arrive at the airport."_

* * *

Ash was relaxing at his apartment at Lily-of-the-Valley Island.

"Hey guys?" He said, "There was this guy who talked to me earlier today."

"Oh?" Brock said.

"His name was Tobias, and he looked pretty ominous." Ash clarified.

"What did he want?" Dawn asked.

"He said that the Sinnoh League wasn't going to be safe this year, and he wants him, me, and Paul to leave before this starts."

"Ash, you know that winning the Sinnoh League has been your dream." Brock stated.

"But, if he's telling the truth…" Dawn said, "We could be in serious trouble if we stay."

"It still seems like a plot to keep you out of the competition." Brock said.

"He said he'd be willing to accompany me when I leave if that's what it takes." Ash said.

"He could be helping a friend win." Brock said.

"Or, he could be trying to keep you safe." Dawn pointed out.

"We've gotten into plenty of trouble before, and we've always survived." Brock said, "I mean, we got in the middle of Team Galactic summoning the rulers of time and space and we're completely unscathed."

"He hinted that it was an attack from some criminal organization, considering he mentioned Jesse and James, and said what was coming was nothing like them." Ash said.

"If that's the case, then we might not be able to handle it." Dawn said, "I'm not sure our Pokemon would do so well if it's a large scale attack."

"We still need to know if we can trust him." Brock said, "Did he give you his room number?"

"He said it was Room 108." Ash said.

"Then let's go and see if he's telling the truth." Brock said.

Together, the tree of them headed over to Tobias' apartment.

"Hello?" Ash said as he knocked on the door.

The door opened, and Tobias regarded them, "Hello Ash. I see that you've brought Brock and Dawn with you." He said.

"Listen, we've got a few questions." Brock said.

"You don't trust me." Tobias said, "Come inside, we can talk there."

The four of them walked inside the apartment. Tobias closed the door and did up several locks.

"You're probably thinking that this is a plot to remove you from the competition, or that you can handle the treat yourself. I am also quite certain that no matter what I say, you will still be suspicious of me. I will tell you outright, then. There will be an attack from a multi-regional criminal organization known as Team Aether. It is targeting the Sinnoh League with the hopes of stealing all the Pokemon from Sinnoh's top trainers. I will also tell you this: They are perfectly capable of performing said feat."

"Wait a minute." Brock said, "How do you know all this stuff anyways?"

"Because I am a part of Team Aether." Tobias said, "I joined under a false name and appearance to learn their secrets and see if I could undermine their power. I underestimated them; their network is too spread out and too well secured for me to breach. So, in order to cover myself up, I disappeared mysteriously on a mission in Hoenn, and haven't been seen since. This happened a few weeks ago, and I managed to get a glimpse of a few of the long-term plans of the Team. Attacking the League was one of the biggest things they're attempting. If things work out correctly, I will reappear with a believable story a few weeks after the attack. I needed to get out to warn the top trainers here. That means you, Ash. You, Paul, and whoever else I can inconspicuously spirit away from here."

"You sound pretty convincing." Brock said, "But you could still be lying."

Tobias' face grew dark, "Don't test my patience. I would just as soon drag you away from here unconscious, but I prefer to leave peacefully. Do not be fooled into thinking staying here is an option."

Ash, who had been thinking hard to himself for the whole conversation, said, "Alright. We'll go with you."

"Ash, are you sure about this?" Brock asked. "What if this is a trick?"

"If it's a trick." Ash said, "There's always next year. If it isn't, there might not be a next year for any of us. As much as I feel bad for leaving the people here behind, it doesn't seem to be possible to stay."

Tobias nodded, "I'm glad you agree. Be prepared to leave soon, I will set things up so that your withdrawal from the competition won't be to problematic."

"Okay." Ash said. The three of them got up and left for their own apartment. All the while, Ash couldn't help but wonder if he was doing the right thing.

* * *

In the midst of Petalburg Woods, a man woke up from under a heavy tree branch.

"My head hurts." He mumbled as he slipped out from under the branch, "Where am I?"

The man looked at his surroundings. He couldn't recognize any of them. He tried to think of where he was last, and, to his surprise, came up blank. He then tried to think about _any_ memories at all, and still got nothing.

"Who am I?" He asked.

* * *

Do you think I was too hard on Jonathan? He's really had a bad day.

It seems Tobias is a tricky little broken-overpowered-Legendary-trainer.

More plot appears in the form of Team Aether.

I have full teams planned for Jesse and James, but if you have any suggestions, feel free to tell me, and I'll consider it.

Part two of the mission will continue next chapter.


	7. New Catches and Other Stuff

Team Rocket Triumphs, Chapter 7: New Catches and Other Stuff

* * *

Disclaimer: I don't own anything from this fanfic. There is original content but I'm not getting money for this anyways so why bother saying I own it?

* * *

The plane that the trio took led them to Cerulean City. Sure, they had history with the current gym leader there, but the city was renowned for its fishing competitions, so Mal took advantage of that and hacked their computers to have the trio registered for the competition today. They were going under false identities of course, since Misty and probably a few locals would recognize them if they showed up looking as they normally did or with the same names as normal.

Jesse and James were now dressed like they fished all the time, and, due to them concealing their hair and wearing a little make-up, they were completely unrecognizable as Jesse and James. Meowth opted to just walk on all fours and pretend he couldn't talk.

"It sure is lucky that there was a fishing competition today." James commented as they walked in the direction of the competition.

"It's not special, we have fishing competitions every week." One of the locals said to the trio as he fell into step beside them.

"You're entering?" Jesse inquired politely. She was specifically told by Mal to be polite and not attract attention. She inwardly twitched an eye each time she had to, but she kept the façade up.

"I enter every week." The local said proudly, "The name's Brad."

"Claudia." Jesse responded, "And this is George." She said as she pointed to James. The trio had concocted fake names that wouldn't seem out of place and didn't contain 80% of their normal names.

"Pleasure to meet you." Brad said, "I hear there's going to be a big turnout today. Some fishing freak said he spotted a shiny Horsea and suddenly everyone's trying to find it."

"A shiny?" James raised his eyebrows, "I can see why there's a commotion."

"Doesn't matter to me, though." Brad said cheerily, "I fish for my own fun, I don't need a shiny to want to fish."

"I hope to see you at the competition." Jesse said before sharply turning a corner. James and Meowth, while puzzled, did the same.

"Did you hear that, Mal?" Jesse said into her mic.

"_Shiny Horsea in Cerulean, fishing fanatics abuzz."_ Mal repeated, _"Sounds interesting, but don't go looking for it. We don't need the Horsea to be shiny, and you're posing as average fishers, so the most you should do is gossip a little about it. If you do happen to find it, however, by all means, capture it."_

"Roger." Jesse said. Then, after switching her mic off, then took a deep, long, breath, "I needed to get away from that Brad guy. Putting on a fake personality is annoying."

"Same here." Meowth said as he stood up, "It's hard not to speak up sometimes."

James took his backpack off silently and took out the egg container to give it a quick check.

"You had that with you?" Meowth asked.

"It does need to hatch." James replied, "And the sooner, the better."

As if on cue, the egg flashed white for a second.

"Whoa, did you see that?" Meowth asked.

"No, I completely didn't see that the egg that was the focus of our attention suddenly flashed bright white." Jesse sarcastically responded.

"That means it's close to hatching!" James exclaimed, "But how did that happen so fast? We only just got the egg."

"Hey, who knows how long that Mama Crobat had the egg before we came along?" Meowth said, "Chances are it had already been a few weeks."

"Hmm, yes." James said, "Well, no sense wondering about that now, we only have so long before the fishing competition starts."

The trio then continued towards the fishing competition, with James keeping the container in his arms in case something happens again.

* * *

The trio had gotten to the registration area, where they were given fishing rods and directed towards the pier where the fishing was taking place.

Jesse and James found a suitable spot, and waited around until the competition started, chatting a little with other competitors. When the starting bell rang, they threw the lines into the water.

A few minutes passed. "This is boring." Jesse complained, "When I came to fish, I didn't think it'd involve _waiting_!"

"It's fishing." James said, "If the fish aren't biting, there's nothing we can do. Although, we should probably find something to do to pass the time."

"_Jesse, check your backpack for a small box with a round indent and a button."_ Mal instructed. Jesse did as he said and pulled out a grey box matching the description.

"What's this?" She wondered.

"_That is a portable Pokemon transporter similar to the ones Pokemon Centers use. You put a Pokeball in the indent and press the button to teleport it to the one I have. Send over the Graveler you snagged, and I'll look at some of its statistics." _Mal said.

Jesse set Graveler's Pokeball in the spot on the box and pressed the button. As Mal said it would, the Pokeball disappeared in a small flash.

A few seconds passed, _"Interesting."_ Mal said, _"This Graveler knows Stealth Rock, Rock Blast, Earthquake, Rock Polish, and Selfdestruct. But aside from that, it's not all that powerful. In fact, considering its strength, it should have only just evolved recently."_

"I guess that makes sense." James said, "After all, Jesse, your Seviper _did_ survive an Earthquake from it even with the Same Type Attack Bonus and the fact that he had already taken damage. It can't have been that strong." Jesse scowled at him.

"_All the better for us."_ Mal said, _"We put it on some intensive strength building programs, and it will be a power to be feared. It's ironic that the person who focused on strategy so much overlooked such a simple concept."_

Jesse and James sent over the Gastly and Kecleon, and the results were roughly the same. The Gastly knew Shadow Ball, Mean Look, Curse, Confuse Ray, and Sucker Punch. It was about the same level as the Graveler. The Kecleon was a bit stronger than the other two, and it knew Substitute, Slash, Shadow Sneak, and Faint Attack.

The trio didn't complain when Mal said he was going to put the three Pokemon in the 'reservoir' of Pokemon Team Rocket had for agents. They knew that was what was supposed to happen for Pokemon agents stole in the field.

Once the conversation with Mal ended, the trio decided to be productive and started to do some sparring with their new Pokemon. Well, Jesse did. James just decided to referee. Meowth took the place as practice partner, as he was getting into the battling concept now, and wanted some more practice.

"Go, Shroomish!" Jesse said as she tossed out the Mushroom Pokemon. Meowth stepped to a spot a certain distance away from Jesse.

"Leech Seed!" Jesse commanded.

As Meowth started to run forwards, Shroomish spat a seed at him. Meowth noticed it as it flew through the air and tried to dodge, but it latched onto his tail and the leaves spread anyways. Nevertheless, Meowth continued running towards Shroomish, and hit him with a Fire Punch. Shroomish flew backwards a little, and landed unconscious.

"Huh." Jesse said, "That didn't take long."

As she recalled Shroomish, Meowth tore the Leech Seed off and James walked over to the two of them. After that, they decided to study up on their Pokemon Statistics.

A while later, Meowth noticed out of the corner of his eye that Jesse's fishing rod was shaking.

"Hey Jesse, you've got something on the line." He whispered.

"Oh!" She said as she walked over to the line and grabbed it, "So I do."

Jesse gave it a hefty yank and a Goldeen flew out of the water. The Goldeen looked around for signs of a threat, and focused on Meowth.

"Hey hey." Meowth said, "You're not the Pokemon we're looking for anyways."

The Goldeen scowled and said something.

"Wait, before you go, can we ask a favour of you, you know, since we're not catching you or anything?" Meowth asked.

The Goldeen's eyes narrowed, but it said something else.

"Oh, nothing really." Meowth casually said, "We were just wondering if you had seen a Horsea that was oddly coloured around here."

The Goldeen nodded and said something.

"Really, that's good." Meowth said, "Listen, could you possibly guide that Horsea in our direction? We'd really appreciate it."

The Goldeen hesitated for a moment, but nodded again. It turned around and splashed into the water, where it disappeared.

"What was that all about?" Jesse asked.

"I just asked that little Goldeen to see if it could bring over that shiny Horsea we've heard about. Turns out that Goldeen knows the Horsea, and if we do this right, we may be able to catch it for ourselves."

"Us getting the shiny Horsea." James said, "Imagine that."

The trio stood on casual guard over the fishing rods, awaiting when the Horsea would show up. They felt a little urge to go back to the studying, but decided it was better to be prepared for when they needed to be ready.

Brad, meanwhile, was a little while over, and there were a few more fishing combatants between him and the trio. He had already caught his first catch of the day, but had cast his line again to see if he could get anything better. So while he waited for his rod to shake again, he glanced around to see if he could find 'Claudia' and 'George' anywhere. He had other friends he could look for, but he had just met Claudia and George and he wanted to see if he could give them any tips or vice versa.

Soon enough, he saw them and their Meowth attentively watching their fishing rods. Brad shook his head and walked over, keeping one eye on his own rod.

"Um, guys?" Brad said as he approached, "You don't need to pay so much attention to the rod. You'll get bored if you do."

"Oh, hi Brad." James said, "We just have a feeling that we'll get a bite soon."

Brad chuckled, "What makes you say that?" he asked.

"Oh, we just asked a Goldeen we hooked to find us a Horsea as a favour." James explained.

"A Horsea?" Brad asked, "Did you specify colour?"

"Not really." James lied, "We just let Meowth here talk to it."

Meowth held up one of his hands and said "Meee-owth!"

"Hmm… Well, it seems you have a very interesting style of fishing. I can't guarantee it'll be effective though." Brad said.

As soon as he said that, James' Rod began to shake. James quickly dashed over to it and hefted what was on the line out of the water. A Horsea with deep blue skin and a light pink belly and fin flew out. It landed on the ground and looked around timidly.

"The shiny…" Brad's eyes went wide, "…You've gotta let me have this one." He said.

Jesse's eyes narrowed, "Sorry, but no deal."

"And what was all that about not wanting to fish for the shiny?" Meowth asked.

Brad blinked, "You can talk?" He asked.

"Yep, and I can also do this too!" Meowth stated as he turned to the Horsea and launched a Thunderbolt. But the Horsea was quick and dodged to the side.

At this point, some of the people on the sides of Jesse and James took notice, and all clamoured around the group. It became evident that they were trying to take the Horsea for themselves when they readied Pokeballs.

"Carnivine, come out!" James called as he tossed a Pokeball in the air. Carnivine appeared and promptly turned around and bit into James' head.

"I know you like me, but do we really have to do this?" He said as he pulled Carnivine off, "Prepare to use Bullet Seed to knock Pokeballs out of the air."

"Yanmega, you come out too!" Jesse called as she released Yanmega from her Pokeball, "Use Sonicboom if any of those people throw any Pokeballs."

"And now, Horsea." Meowth said, "It's just us."

"Horsea-Hor." Horsea said.

"All the better." Meowth replied. Then he used Thunderbolt.

The bolt was once again evaded by Horsea, who responded with Aurora Beam.

The beam hit Meowth, but he blocked it with a Fire Punch. He used the protection of the flames to move forwards without taking damage. When he got close enough, he launched a third Thunderbolt. This one hit its mark, and Horsea dropped the Aurora Beam and fell down. The Horsea got up, and this time sent out a blast of green flames.

"Since when does a Horsea know Dragonbreath?" Meowth asked as he narrowly dodged the flames.

"Horsea!" The Horsea replied.

"Oh, right. Kingdra parents and whatnot." Meowth said. He took advantage of the missed attack to run up very close to Horsea, "Try my Fury Swipes!"

Meowth's claws glowed white as he scratched the Horsea and ran past it. The Horsea fell to the ground with swirls for eyes.

A few of the more ambitious fishers threw Pokeballs, but Bullet Seed and Sonicboom prevented them from reaching their target.

James, who had been watching for _his_ chance, tossed his own Pokeball at the Horsea, who was sucked inside easily. The ball started to wiggle, and the whole area fell into a state of silent tension, with the trio wanting the ball to ding, and the crowd wanting the Horsea to escape.

Eventually, the ball dinged, and the tension broke as swiftly as it came. Some of the more hopeful in the crowd cried a little, but the overall opinion was disappointment as the crowd dispersed back to their own rods now that the shiny was caught.

"I… don't suppose you'd be willing to trade?" Brad asked somewhat pathetically.

"Not particularly." James said, "In fact, this Horsea is the reason we came here in the first place."

"That makes sense." Brad said, recovering from his envy a little, "And you have a Meowth that can talk. You guys get all the luck."

"Trust me, if we three have had any kind of luck, it's usually the bad kind." Meowth commented.

"What I'm most surprised about is that tactic of yours." Brad said, "I never really expected asking a Pokemon you caught for help would actually work."

"You don't even need me to do it." Meowth said, "you can just ask the Pokemon on your own."

"I will take note of that." Brad said with respect for the three fishers who he considered his superiors now.

The rest of the competition was really uneventful. The trio didn't even try to catch anything else but they won first prize anyways for getting a shiny. After they got a neat medal for winning, they politely excused themselves and left for the edge of town, where Mal had said he brought the helicopter.

* * *

Agents Jesse and James, Observation Report 2:

This time, the subjects took a plane to Hoenn. I was unable to follow them to the other region on such short notice but I managed to hack some cameras and audio recording equipment monitoring them from their supervisor and copy the footage.

They went to Petalburg Woods and caught a Shroomish with Poison Heal. After catching it, they had a run in with an aspiring trainer named Jonathan, who was also trying to catch the Shroomish.

They engaged in battle on their supervisor's command and stole three of his Pokemon with Snag Machines. They managed to get away without difficulties.

Later, they took a plane back to Cerulean City. From there, I snuck into the fishing competition they were in and observed them. They appeared to be out to get any Horsea, but used clever tactics to catch the Shiny Horsea that had been causing such a ruckus around the area.

It seems now like they're out to collect Pokemon with potential for their teams. A Kingdra would be a hard opponent to face in battle, and a Breloom can be dangerous too. They also seem to be trusted with attempting more criminal activities on the side. At this point, it is hard to tell when I should start to interfere with their work.

Agent 37, out

After finishing the report, Agent 37 leaned back in her chair, _"Let's hope I get a challenge this time."_ She thought.

* * *

Jonathan (not that he knew that was his name) rummaged through his backpack in hopes of finding any clues on who he was.

He had found a sleeping bag, Pokemon food, regular food, and what appeared to be a book detailing classic Pokemon strategies such as Toxic-stalling, with examples for common applications. Yet nowhere he looked did he see anything with his name on it.

He searched further, and found some interesting things, one of which being a paper with what appeared to be his team of Pokemon and their best uses. But sadly, it appeared he hadn't put his name on the sheet.

He looked around; he noticed marks on the ground that would indicate a Pokemon battle. He tried hard to remember something from his apparent battle here, and, to his wonder, a faint image of a woman with long red hair and a red 'R' appeared in his head, along with faint feelings of upset-ness. That wasn't much, but it was something. Jonathan quickly took out a notepad and sketched what he remembered.

Jonathan, after mulling it over in his head, decided to find his way out of the forest and see if he could get to a Pokemon Center or someplace else civilized.

After a few hours of walking, most of which was spent being utterly and hopelessly lost (he couldn't remember which way he entered the forest from), Jonathan wandered out of Petalburg Woods and saw a city in the distance. As he approached, he noticed a sign that said 'Rustburo City'. He still knew that Rustburo was in the Hoenn region, but honestly, that wasn't much help at all.

He entered the city, and soon found a Pokemon Center. He went straight to one of the computers that was unoccupied, and entered the Internet.

He searched for 'Red 'R'' on a search engine, and, after sifting through some irrelevant entries, eventually got 'Team Rocket' back.

"_So that woman I remembered was a member of Team Rocket."_ Jonathan thought, _"Was she my opponent, or was she an ally? Did I even know her at all?"_

Jonathan, still undecided, searched 'Team Rocket long red hair'. To his mild surprise, he easily found the image he remembered. He read that the person was named Jesse, and that she was partnered with a blue-haired individual named James and with a talking Meowth at their side. He read that they used to be fairly dangerous criminals a few years ago but hadn't done much recently.

Jonathan took a deep breath, regardless of whether or not these people were good company, he needed to go find them if he wanted to have any place to start on his memories.

Jonathan hesitated only a moment before searching 'Join Team Rocket'.

* * *

Ash, Brock, and Dawn were almost finished packing up their belongings at the Sinnoh League. There was an unvoiced feeling of disappointment and failure in the air, since they came so far and worked so hard, but were just going to give up now.

Ash, as he was packing up, was unusually silent. Brock took notice of this.

"Ash, cheer up. It's not the end of the world or anything." Brock said.

"Yeah, it isn't." Ash admitted, "And I've always got next year. I get that, and my Pokemon get that too." That was true, Ash had discussed the situation with his team earlier, "It's just… there are other people in the League."

"You don't feel like your safety should be valued over theirs." Dawn said, "Or that you should be saved while they don't get a chance."

Ash nodded, "I keep feeling like I should be there for them. Like I should be there to protect them."

"You can't save everyone." Brock noted, "Think of it this way, if you get seriously injured here, you won't be able to help people afterwards. Just think about how many people whose lives we've improved on this journey, and how many you wouldn't get to help if you were stuck in a hospital bed."

"Not to mention how terrible your Pokemon would feel." Dawn piped in, "And us too."

Ash cringed, "You're right. But still…" he trailed off.

Brock stopped packing and put his hand on Ash's shoulder, "No one said this would be easy, but Tobias made it pretty clear it was necessary."

"Yeah…" Ash said, his eyes gloomy. He shook his head and his eyes brightened up, "I've been worrying too much. Tobias seems to be a good guy, and I think he knows what's best more than we do."

And thus the three of them finished packing up and left their room for the front desk, where they politely signed out of the competition.

"Look, there's Tobias!" Ash exclaimed as he turned around and saw Tobias waiting outside… with Paul.

Ash and co. walked outside, "Hi Paul." Ash said.

Paul fixed a small glare at Ash, "You're happy today of all days?" He scoffed, "We're being forced to withdraw from the Sinnoh League."

"Ash chose to withdraw of his own free will." Tobias said, "Unlike you, he showed an ounce of reasoning."

"Unlike me…" Ash said, "Paul, you said no?"

"And so what if I did?" Paul retorted, "I'm still leaving behind my chance at victory anyways."

"Seeing as I beat you in a fair battle, you wouldn't have had a chance at winning here anyways." Tobias said, "Now stop being a grouch and come on; we need to get going. Latios!" Tobias threw out a Pokeball, which released a blue-white dragon Legendary Pokemon.

Before any of them (or the surrounding people) could react to seeing a Legendary Pokemon in front of them, Tobias said, "Teleport to home."

Latios nodded, and the entire group disappeared into thin air.

They reappeared in the front lawn of an old-fashioned house, which looked, despite its obvious age, to still be in good condition.

"This is my family's home in Solaceon Town." Tobias told them, "Ash, I recommend you find a place to stay for a while. The Pokemon Center's a little ways East of here. Everyone, the time after the Pokemon League is attacked will be a very paranoid one. It is a very real possibility that people won't be able to leave or enter Sinnoh until the dust settles. It is my advice that you lay low here for a while. As for Paul, Latios will take him to Veilstone City, and the same advice applies."

"Tobias." Ash said, "I have some other rivals entering the League. Can you see if you can get them out too?"

Tobias nodded, "I'll see what I can do." He said, "Latios, Teleport."

Tobias, Paul, and Latios vanished into thin air.

"Who knew the guy had a Latios?" Brock said in amazement, "He's definitely in a whole different class than us."

"How did he even capture a Legendary Pokemon anyways?" Dawn asked, "Shouldn't that be kinda impossible?"

"I don't know." Ash admitted, "But I do know that I probably wouldn't have been able to beat Tobias if I had all of the Pokemon I ever caught on my team." He grinned, "I bet I could give him a run for his money, though."

"You do have a point." Brock said, "It takes an awful lot of raw power to teleport a group of people halfway across an entire region multiple times. Even if it ends up worn out from all that it's still a mind boggling feat."

Meanwhile, Angie, who was taking care of the Solaceon Day Care with her parents, was taking a relaxing walk around town with her Shinx. As she passed by one of the houses that she recalled was a family home to a trainer who was currently on a journey or something, she idly glanced over at it. Angie saw there were a few people on the front lawn. Wait… was that Ash?

Angie did a double take and nearly stumbled as she saw that Ash, Dawn, and Brock were all gathered on the front lawn of a house. Here, in Solaceon Town. Instead at the Sinnoh League.

Knowing that something had to be up, Angie started walking in their direction as Shinx followed.

"Ash!" Angie called as she approached, "You're here!"

"Oh, hi Angie!" Ash said as he turned around and noticed Angie.

Angie reached the group, "Aren't you supposed to be at the Sinnoh League?" She asked, "It starts in about a week!"

Hearing this, a flicker of regret flashed across Ash's face for a second, "I'm not participating this year." He admitted.

"Not… participating?" Angie repeated, "What, did you not get your last gym badge or something?"

"No, I got all eight." Ash said as he pulled out his badge case and showed Angie the eight gym badges, "I even got to the Lily-of-the-Valley Island, where the tournament's held."

Angie blinked, Ash was eligible to compete in the Sinnoh League but he wasn't going to? Now, Angie knew all the more that something was up, "Then what happened?" She asked, worried.

"The guy who lives at this house told me it wasn't safe to stay there." Ash confessed.

Angie's mind just blanked out at that statement "Let me get this straight." Angie said, "You were all ready to battle in the Sinnoh League, which was your dream, I might add, but then some guy goes and tells you it's not safe, and _you just listen to him and leave?_"

"It's a longer story than that." Ash said, "He said there was going to be some sort of terrorist attack on the place and that I should leave since I'm one of the top trainers entering.

"A terrorist attack?" Angie exclaimed, getting more and more worried, "Did he tell the authorities about it?"

"We never asked." Brock admitted, "But it was implied that he tried and failed to cancel the tournament. So he gathered up the best trainers of the League and had them withdraw from the competition inconspicuously."

"We were also told to stay here a few weeks until things calm down after the attack." Dawn said.

"Oh," Angie blinked, "Well you could always stay at my place again." Angie said.

"Really? We'd be staying for a few weeks, and I don't want to put a burden on you." Ash said.

"Don't worry." Angie dismissed, "We still have plenty of spare rooms and the extra food isn't going to be a problem."

"That's really nice of you." Ash told Angie, who blushed.

"We-we're friends." She said shakily, "It's no big deal, really."

At that moment, Tobias and Latios teleported back, sans Paul.

"Hello again." He said, "And hello Angie. I see you've been doing well."

"You know me?" Angie asked, confused, "And is that a Latios?"

Tobias recalled Latios, "I made it a concern of mine to learn about the people living in my hometown. Additionally, your family owns the Day Care, which is one of the town's more notable features. Latios is one of my Pokemon, yes."

"…Is it true, what you said?" Angie asked, "The Pokemon League not being safe?"

Tobias solemnly nodded his head, "Despite how much I wish otherwise, it isn't safe. I'm trying my best to minimize the tragedy of the event, but this is the most headway I've gotten."

"Can't you do anything about the criminals?" Angie pleaded, "You have a Legendary Pokemon? Can't you use that?"

A hint of annoyance flickered in Tobias' eyes and his posture shifted somewhat, "First off, I'll have you know Latios is a he, not a _that_. Secondly, Legendary Pokemon are far from unbeatable. If I recall correctly, Pyramid King Brandon has the Golem Trio of Regice, Regirock, and Registeel. And yet, Ash still won against him. Even if I were to storm into the heart of their headquarters and try to tear it down, I would inevitably lose. When I lose, my Pokemon would be stolen from me and added to Team Aether's ranks, thus increasing their power and bringing them that much closer to their goals. I do intend to defeat them eventually, but I cannot take any risks."

"So you're just going to let them get away with it?" Angie accused.

Open anger now showed on Tobias' face, "What do you think I'm doing?" He said in a raised voice, "I tried to cancel or delay the tournament, but the officials didn't believe me. I can't stop the tournament, and I can't stop Team Aether either! The attack's going to happen and there's nothing I can do about it! The best I can do is take trainers like Ash away from the attack so they don't suffer from it."

Angie looked as if she was going to say something else, but looked at Tobias again and closed her mouth. She took a deep breath, "I'm sorry." She said, "I didn't mean to aggravate you, it's clear you only mean the best."

Tobias calmed down too, "I'm sorry too. I shouldn't have raised my voice when you were just looking after Ash here." Tobias turned to Ash, "Ash, I recommend you start preparing your Pokemon for tough battles. Knowing you, you're going to have to face off against Team Aether eventually, and it'd be best if your Pokemon were ready for any possibility."

Ash nodded, "Training's what I do best!" He declared cheerfully.

And so Ash, Dawn, Brock, and now Angie said goodbye to Tobias and headed back to the Solaceon Day Care.

* * *

"It feels good to submit a job well done." James said as he placed the mission report in the folder.

"And to think we didn't get blown up or hurt this time either!" Meowth commented.

The trio had gotten back from their mission with no problems whatsoever. It was roughly in the middle of the afternoon now, and they were in Mr. Carth's office to submit the documentation (along with a copy of the video footage Mal had on a CD) of their mission into their folder.

"Alright." Mr. Carth said, "If you had come back a few hours later, you'd be dismissed for the day, but, since we have the rest of the afternoon, how about we go and get a head start on training your new Pokemon?"

Jesse looked at James, "My Shroomish did look like it went down easily when I caught it." She said, "I'm up for it."

"Excellent." Mr. Carth stood up, "Let's get going then."

As the trio and Mr. Carth walked to the training gym, absolutely nothing of significance or character development happened.

As they entered the gym, Mr. Carth guided the trio to a machine in the corner. It had a small indentation where a Pokeball would fit and a monitor, which was asleep.

"Jesse, your Shroomish, if you would." Mr. Carth asked.

Jesse took out the Pokeball and handed it to Mr. Carth, who placed it in the indentation and pressed a few buttons. The screen woke up and a 3D model of Shroomish appeared on the screen. To the right of the image various statistics showed up, such as that the Shroomish was caught earlier this day, that its ability was Poison Heal, and that it was male. Mr. Carth pressed a few more buttons, and the image moved away to show lists of moves. There were Leech Seed, Absorb, Tackle, and Stun Spore listed.

"So those are the move Shroomish knows?" Meowth asked.

"Yes." Mr. Carth said. "We use this machine to determine almost anything about any specific Pokemon. Just watch."

Mr. Carth pressed another button, and the moves disappeared and a bar graph showed up.

"This graph shows how good Shroomish is in any given stat." Mr. Carth pressed another button, and dotted lines appeared in the bar graph, some of them were below the bars, but some of them were above, "This shows Shroomish's strength compared to other Shroomish. From what we see here, Shroomish appears to have subpar speed but excellent HP, with the rest of its stats being roughly average for its kind. We can use this data to help train Shroomish specifically to its individual strengths and weaknesses."

"Quite convenient." James said.

"Indeed." Mr. Carth said as he pulled Shroomish's Pokeball out and handed it back to Jesse, "And now for your Horsea." He prompted.

James handed him the Pokeball, and Mr. Carth loaded it into the machine.

The Horsea turned out to know Water Gun, Smokescreen, Dragonbreath, and Aurora Beam. It had the ability Swift Swim and was female. Stat-wise, it was above average in Speed but worse in Defense.

"How come you never used that thing on me?" Meowth asked.

"It only works when the Pokemon is in their Pokeball." Mr. Carth explained, "For someone with no Pokeball to begin with, that poses a bit of a problem."

"Ah, right." Meowth said.

The trio then spent the rest of the day training Shroomish and Horsea along with Meowth. The three of them were doing general strength training, to add a little more power to their attacks.

The next day, the trio were, once again, awaiting orders in Mr. Carth's office.

"Alright." Mr. Carth said, "I should let you all know that you will not be sent out on a mission for a while so you can train up your new catches." Jesse and James nodded, knowing very well that their new Pokemon were weak and untrained (one of them is a Magikarp and another hasn't even hatched yet!).

"And as for us?" James asked, "I presume it isn't necessary for us to be at our Pokemon's side as we train."

Mr. Carth nodded, "While that normally would be so, training with your Pokemon provides a bond with them that has shown to greatly aid prowess in battle. As your Pokemon train, you will be training more or less with them so they can get used to you. Now, since I feel people train best when they have a goal in mind, I will tell you of your upcoming mission. You will go to Sinnoh and steal all the Pokemon Eggs stored in the Solaceon Day Care."

"Why the one in Sinnoh?" Jesse asked, "Why not one of the ones in Kanto or Johto?"

"Because, out of all of them, the Solaceon Day Care is the least guarded." Mr. Carth answered, "At its worst it has a mediocre security system and a kid running everything. Its best isn't that better either. If you were to try to steal from other, better protected Day Cares there would be a higher chance of you failing. You and your Pokemon will be training with this event in mind. Any questions?"

"Yes, actually." James said, "I was hoping I could talk to you about something."

* * *

I should let you all know that I'm just going to skip over the training period because I couldn't find a way to write it all out without it looking boring and redundanant or skimmed over. Whatever they accomplish during their training will be revealed during their mission. I understand if this makes any of you want to throw rocks at me, I won't hold it against you.

I generally like to poke fun at the overall ignorance of the Pokemon World in regard to the intelligence of Pokemon and, in general, other matters that are obvious that citizens don't really notice at all.

About Tobias' Latios, I think of Legendary Pokemon having extreme amounts of raw power, but little control over their powers or exceptionality in other regards, like endurance. This is why Latios can teleport across the entire region in a heartbeat but would still be taken out by three of Ash's Pokemon, making its true battling powers dependant on its level of training.


	8. Real Criminals

Team Rocket Triumphs, Chapter 8: Real Criminals

*Dodges thrown rocks*

* * *

Disclaimer: I don't own anything from this fanfic. There is original content but I'm not getting money for this anyways so why bother saying I own it?

* * *

"How long until nightfall?" James asked.

The trio had arrived in Solaceon Town earlier that day, blending in with the crowd of tourists and travellers that took the same plane as them. Their mission wasn't going to take place until well after midnight, so the three of them had nothing to do for a good number of hours. They considered doing something to pass the time, but James noted that any criminal activities might cause problems in the plan.

This was a real mission; they couldn't afford to take chances.

And so, the trio resigned themselves to sitting down on a park bench relatively near the Day Care and waiting. Always waiting.

"Huh?" A voice was spoken by a person who had a voice and was not mute or not speaking, "You guys are here too?"

The trio looked up to see Nicole, from the Lake of Rage, standing across from them.

"Nicole?" James asked, "What are you doing here? Shouldn't you be in Johto, preparing for the Silver Conference?"

Nicole gave them a blank look. "No," She said, "I'm not participating in the Johto League. I'm here in Sinnoh to see if I could find some evolutionary stones."

"Like a Moon Stone, for your Clefairy?" Meowth guessed.

"Yes, among my other Pokemon," Nicole said, "I never got your names, by the way."

"Claudia and George," Jesse and James said.

Nicole nodded, "Say, how about we battle again? It looks like you have time to kill and I haven't had a good battle in a while."

"_Do it,"_ Mal urged, _"This might be a good opportunity to test your Pokemon."_

"How can I turn that down? You're on!" Jesse declared, "Three Pokemon each sound good?"

"Sounds perfect," Nicole grinned. She then took off in the direction of one of the park's battlefields. The trio followed.

"I'll choose my Pokemon first!" Nicole told Jesse, who reached the opposite end of the field.

"_Jesse, don't snag any of her Pokemon,"_ Mal said, _"We don't want to attract any attention._ _ If you get found out as criminals, the whole plan is ruined."_

"Umm, Claudia?" Nicole asked, "I already sent out Vulpix, what's keeping you?"

"Oh!" Jesse's attention snapped back to the battlefield, "Sorry."

Jesse looked at her opponent and smiled satisfactorily, "Gyarados, come on out!"

Jesse threw a Pokeball in the air and released a large, somehow airborne, blue dragon.

"Ooh, so _that's_ what you did with that Magikarp from the Lake of Rage!" Nicole exclaimed, "Looks like I might have a tough time."

"Begin!" James shouted from the referee's spot at the middle.

"Vulpix, Confuse Ray!" Nicole said.

Vulpix raised her head up and a purple energy orb formed above her nose.

"Water Gun!" Jesse called. Gyarados shot a stream of pressurized water at the Vulpix.

Vulpix noticed the water, though, and sidestepped the blast while sending her Confuse Ray back towards Gyarados.

"Dodge it!" Jesse commanded. Gyarados started to move out of the way but the orb struck her body nonetheless. Gyarados' eyes flashed red for a second and she suddenly started moving through the air erratically.

"Ugh, use Bite!" Jesse said. Gyarados faced towards where Vulpix was and charged, teeth glowing white and leaving behind trails of white light.

Unfortunately, Gyarados missed Vulpix entirely and slammed face first into the ground, her mouth only Biting dirt.

"Now Vulpix, Return!" Nicole said with a fierce smile.

Vulpix started running forwards towards the still stunned Gyarados. Around its head four pink hearts formed in a square formation. Vulpix launched itself right between Gyarados' eyes, and the Atrocious Pokemon was flung far further than one would expect, considering the size difference.

Gyarados landed on her side and let out a cry of pain. Still, she got up again and faced down the Vulpix, albeit somewhat woozily.

"Return," Jesse called back Gyarados, "This way your Confusion will be healed. Now, Shroomish!"

Nicole snickered at the Mushroom Pokemon. "You willingly send in a Grass type to face a Fire type? Ah well, Fire Spin, Vulpix!"

Vulpix opened her mouth and a spiral of flame shot out towards Shroomish, who zipped out of the way surprisingly quickly and only experienced a mild heat.

"Shroomish, Poisonpowder yourself!" Jesse commanded. From the point on the top of Shroomish's head a cloud of purple particles shot out. Shroomish jumped into it, and when he landed his face had a purple blush to it. "Now, Leech Seed!"

Again from the tip of Shroomish's head a small seed shot out towards Vulpix.

"Dig!" Nicole said. Vulpix immediately started pawing at the ground rapidly and burrowed into a hole.

Jesse and Shroomish waited as a thick tension descended over the area. Eventually, Vulpix leapt out of the ground from behind Shroomish and punched him with a paw. Shroomish skidded back a bit but, without hesitation, shot another Leech Seed at Vulpix. This one hit.

As the vines and leaves from the Leech Seed spread over Vulpix's body, Jesse called out: "Now, Stun Spore!" Shroomish shot a cloud of yellow dust at Vulpix, who inhaled the dust and cringed as electricity crackled over her body.

"Fire Spin!" Nicole called out worriedly. Vulpix shot another spiral of flame, but it was easily dodged again.

"Mega Drain!" Jesse told Shroomish. Shroomish concentrated and large orbs of green energy flowed out from Vulpix towards Shroomish.

"Vulpix, get close to him and use Return!" Nicole said. Vulpix started to move as hearts surrounded her, but she was running slower than she usually did, and Shroomish outran her. Meanwhile, Leech Seed was sapping even more energy away from Vulpix and adding it to Shroomish, who was already being boosted from his Poison Heal.

"Mega Drain!" Jesse called. Shroomish stopped running, faced Vulpix, and concentrated again. As the orbs of energy flowed towards him, Vulpix finally caught up and slammed into Shroomish, knocking him across the battlefield.

"Fire Spin!" Nicole commanded. Vulpix opened his mouth to attack, but electricity crackled over her fur and Vulpix faltered, Paralysis at work.

"Shroomish, finish this with Tackle!" Jesse said. Shroomish got up and charged towards Vulpix. When they collided, Shroomish landed nicely, but Vulpix flew back a little and landed with swirls for eyes.

"Return, Vulpix," Nicole said resignedly as she recalled Vulpix, "I've gotta hand it to you, you've raised Shroomish really well if you can pull off tactics like that."

"Oh, it's nothing really," Jesse said, "Your Vulpix is strong too."

Nicole smiled, "Alright, time for my second Pokemon. Kirlia, herald of victory!" Nicole threw a Pokeball and a Kirlia materialized from it.

"Wait." Jesse said, "Herald of victory?"

"It's what I say when I call out my Pokemon," Nicole said, slightly puzzled, "Didn't you hear it when I called out Vulpix?"

"I wasn't quite paying attention," Jesse admitted, "But still, what kind of a call is 'herald of victory'?"

"A herald is someone like a messenger," Nicole explained, "They show up to bring forewarning of a coming event. So a 'herald of victory' means that their presence foreshadows my victory."

Jesse facepalmed, "I know what a herald is," She said, "I'm just saying I think it sounds silly."

"I'd like to see you come up with a better battle call!" Nicole retorted, upset.

Jesse shook her head, "I dunno, maybe 'Go, Pokemon!' or… 'Pokemon, I choose you!'… You know, it's actually kind of hard to think of an original call that doesn't feel silly."

"'Herald of victory' is the best I've come up with," Nicole said, "But we've stalled this battle long enough. Kirlia, Confusion!"

Kirlia snapped to attention and focused his mind. His eyes started to glow blue as a blue aura surrounded him. Shroomish, who had just snapped back to attention as well, was also covered in a blue aura.

Shroomish tried to move, but he was stuck in place by the blue aura. "Throw him upwards!" Nicole shouted. Kirlia lifted a hand and gestured to the sky, causing Shroomish to fly upwards.

The aura dissipated, and Shroomish now found himself a good distance in the air with nothing to stop him from falling.

"Shroomish, use Tackle as you fall!" Jesse commanded. Shroomish nodded (though it was hard to tell from that height) and angled himself in the direction of Kirlia in order to slam into it.

"Kirlia, Teleport," Nicole said. Kirlia started to glow multicoloured with a light blue outline. A second later, he vanished without a trace, reappearing a few seconds later on the other side of the battlefield.

Shroomish, noticing that he was now speeding towards the ground at a target that was not there anymore, started to panic and tried to slow his descent.

"Return!" Jesse called as she recalled Shroomish. "Go, Gyarados!"

Jesse threw out another Pokeball and sent out the Gyarados.

"Great," Jesse said, "Now I can't send out any of my Pokemon without being self-conscious about the call I use."

"Sorry about that," Nicole apologized, "Kirlia, use-"

"Return," Jesse then called back Gyarados and sent Shroomish out again.

"You just switched Pokemon so your Shroomish wouldn't have to hit the ground?" Nicole stated.

"…And?" Jesse asked.

"It's cheap!" Nicole declared, "Cheap and underhanded."

"And it worked," Jesse noted, "As you can see, Shroomish here is still ready for battle and not in the center of a crater. Now, Mega Drain!"

Shroomish concentrated and sucked medium sized orbs of green energy from Kirlia, who winced at the health flowing away from him.

"Shadow Ball!" Nicole shouted. Kirlia set his hands a little ways apart from each other and a black sphere crackling with purple static formed between them. Kirlia made a motion with his hands and sent the ball flying.

"Dodge it!" Jesse called. Shroomish swiftly sidestepped the Shadow Ball.

"Sorry," Nicole said, "Not gonna happen." Kirlia focuses his will and the Shadow Ball developed a blue tinge and changed trajectory to continue towards Shroomish, who didn't dodge this time and got hit and flung backwards.

"Shroomish, get up and use Leech Seed!" Jesse called. Shroomish got up and shot a seed towards Kirlia.

"Teleport," Nicole said. Kirlia glowed multicoloured with a blue outline and vanished, dodging the attack.

"When he reappears, use Leech Seed again," Jesse told Shroomish.

Kirlia soon appeared on the other side of the battlefield. Shroomish turned to face him and immediately shot out another Leech Seed before he could get a chance to Teleport again. The seed hit and energy-sucking vines covered his body.

"Poisonpowder!" Jesse shouted. Shroomish got closer and expelled a purple cloud of poisonous particles, which Kirlia, still distracted by the Leech Seed, inhaled. A purple blush formed over his face.

"Kirlia, hang in there and use Shadow Ball again!" Nicole commanded. Kirlia formed another black sphere with purple static and flung it at Shroomish. The attack connected, and Shroomish was thrown through the air. When he landed, it was obvious that Shroomish had fainted.

"I'll admit this, you've done a really good job training that Shroomish if it can compete with my Pokemon." Nicole said, "I mean, it took out Vulpix and did some big damage to Kirlia. And to think you spend your days fishing for Magikarp."

"Well let's just see what you think about that Magikarp now." Jesse bragged as she threw Gyarados' Pokeball.

Gyarados appeared on the battlefield and let out a large roar that made everyone cover their ears.

"What was that all about?!" Nicole asked.

"Gyara-Gyarados." [Take a wild guess] said.

"She says she forgot to do that the first time." Meowth stated. "Uh, Gyarados, I don't think it'd be that good of an idea to do that every time you battle."

"Dos." Gyarados glared at Meowth.

"Whatever." Meowth shrugged.

"Agreed." Nicole said, "Kirlia, use Shock Wave!"

"Twister, Gyarados!" Jesse called just afterwards.

A light blue ball of electricity formed above Kirlia's head and a beam of electricity shot out of it towards Gyarados. Gyarados waved her tail in front of her and a ball of wind formed there, and a tornado shot out from that point towards Kirlia.

The two attacks collided (Don't ask me how electricity collides with wind, it just did) and a stalemate started in which neither attack gave way. The stalemate ended when a large explosion occurred and both attacks stopped as a cloud of smoke covered the battlefield.

When the smoke cleared away in a few seconds, it was revealed that both sides were unharmed and ready to continue the battle.

"Bite!" Jesse commanded. Gyarados' teeth glowed white as she propelled herself at Kirlia, teeth leaving white trails in the air.

"Teleport to dodge!" Nicole shouted. Kirlia glowed and vanished again.

"Don't give up, Gyarados." Jesse encouraged, "Attack it when it reappears."

Kirlia soon appeared directly under Gyarados, probably assuming it to be awkward to attack there. Kirlia obviously underestimated the flexibility of Gyarados, however, because the Atrocious Pokemon did a 180-degree turn vertically and struck with Bite as her tail whipped behind her.

"Teleport!" Nicole called frantically. Kirlia started to glow, but Gyagados' Bite grew tighter and he lost his concentration, "Shock Wave!" Nicole called again. Kirlia tried hard to focus, and managed to get a ball of electricity above him. He sent a ray of electricity to hit Gyarados point blank.

Gyarados released Kirlia from her grasp as she was launched back from the Shock Wave. Gyarados landed on the ground some ways away with swirls for eyes.

"Looks like that double weakness really did the trick." Nicole commented.

"I guess it can't be helped." Jesse said as she recalled Gyarados, "Even though she's strong, she's only just evolved."

"Meowth's your last Pokemon, right?" Nicole asked.

"Hey, I'm no one's Pokemon!" Meowth declared indignantly, "But… I guess I'll fight anyways. I want a rematch against that Clefairy of yours." Meowth stepped forwards onto the battlefield.

"We'll see if you even get that far." Nicole chuckled, "Kirlia, Magical Leaf!" Kirlia stuck both hands in front of him and shot out dozens of light green leaves. Meowth tried to dodge to the side but the leaves followed anyways and hit him.

"Stupid perfect accuracy moves." Meowth grunted, "Let's see how they handle a Fire Punch!" As the next wave of leaves came towards him, Meowth's fist caught fire and he started punching down the leaves as they came.

"Well, it appears this isn't working." Nicole stated, "Try Confusion."

Kirlia stopped shooting leaves at Meowth and focused his mind. A blue aura surrounded Meowth as he started to lose control of his limbs… That is, until he started to glow with a blackish-purple aura and rushed towards Kirlia. As he got close, Kirlia prepared to dodge the attack, but Meowth vanished into thin air and hit Kirlia from the back, sending him flying and knocking him out.

"But how?" Nicole exclaimed as she recalled Kirlia, "You're a Normal Type!"

"A Normal Type using Faint Attack." Meowth corrected, "And using the Dark energy to protect myself from that Confusion."

Nicole smiled, "Looks like you've improved since last time. I guess you'll get to face off against Clefairy after all."

Hearing this, Clefairy stepped from her place at Nicole's side onto the battlefield. As soon as she had done this, Meowth shot a Thunderbolt at her.

"Dodge it!" Nicole shouted. Clefairy jumped off to the side and barely avoided the bolt. "Now use Iron Tail!" Clefairy's tail turned to steel and she ran toward Meowth, who armed a Fire Punch and waited for Clefairy to strike. The two attacks hit, and the struggle looked even until Meowth lashed out at Clefairy with Fury Swipes using his other hand. Clefairy lost control of her attack and Fire Punch overpowered it, also slamming into Clefairy and both attacks sending her flying backwards.

After Clefairy got up, Meowth started running towards her, Dark glow growing. "Brick Break!" Nicole called. Clefairy's hand glowed white and she ran forwards to meet Meowth. As they got close, Meowth vanished from sight, and Clefairy immediately spun around and struck Meowth when he appeared behind her. The Dark glow dissipated and Meowth flew backwards.

"Don't think that'll work a second time." Nicole bragged, "And it looks like that Brick Break did some serious damage, wouldn't you say?"

"Looks like I was reckless." Meowth said as he stood up. "I won't let that happen a second time." Meowth released another Thunderbolt at Clefairy, who wasn't paying attention and got hit, falling to one knee. "And besides, your Clefairy isn't doing so good either."

"Clefairy, it looks like it's time for Metronome." Nicole said, "Because how much fun would this battle be if things were that simple?" Clefairy's fingers turned white as she waggled them back and forth. Clefiary's whole body glowed white now, and the area close to her looked yellow in colour. When the light faded, Clefairy looked as if she hadn't taken a hit at all.

"Morning Sun, how nice." Nicole commented, "Now, Iron Tail again!"

Clefairy's tail turned to metal as she ran towards Meowth again. Meowth, however, didn't even go for the direct confrontation as he dug a tunnel in the ground and escaped the attack there.

Clefairy stopped and her tail returned to normal as she observed her surroundings. Meowth could come up virtually anywhere, and she had to be ready for it.

Out of nowhere, Meowth appeared behind Clefairy and hit her with Faint Attack.

"Apparently I can use Faint Attack even when underground." Meowth noted.

"Clefairy, let's try our luck again with Metronome!" Nicole commanded. Clefairy waggled her glowing fingers again. Clefairy started to sing loudly and badly, with black waves of energy accompanying the song. As the waves hit Meowth, red electricity started to crackle around him as similar electricity crackled around Clefairy.

"Oh, great." Nicole sighed, "Perish Song. And we're both on our last Pokemon, so that means… I have only a short time to finish you off! Ice Punch!"

Clefairy's hand started to glow with pale energy as she ran towards Meowth.

Meowth grinned and his hand also started to glow as he used Ice Punch too. Both of them crackled with red electricity.

"Fire Punch with the other hand!" Nicole commanded. Clefairy's other hand burst into flame as she prepared to use her Fire Punch. Meowth's other hand also burst into flame as he prepared to use _his_ Fire Punch. They crackled with red electricity again, signifying that they didn't have much more time to finish the match.

As they approached each other, Meowth used Faint Attack and vanished from sight. Clefairy lashed out behind her with her two attacks, but hit only open air. She didn't have enough time to feel puzzled before Meowth hit her from the side with Fire Punch, Ice Punch, and the power of Faint Attack boosting both attacks.

Clefairy flew across the battlefield and fainted as she landed. Meowth stood victorious for all of one second before red electricity crackled one final time and Meowth collapsed.

Both parties looked at the two Pokemon lying unconscious on the ground. "So…" Nicole said, "I guess that makes this a draw?"

"Clefairy fainted first." Jesse pointed out, "I think I won."

"But _both_ of them fainted!" Nicole protested, "Since both of them fainted at roughly the same time it counts as a tie!"

"Fine, fine. Sheesh." Jesse sighed, "Anyways, we'd better get going."

"Going where?" Nicole asked.

"Oh, nothing." Jesse said casually, "We're just going to cause some panic and chaos tonight because we're secretly parts of a criminal organization bent on taking over the world."

Nicole shook her head, "Very funny, what are you really doing?"

Jesse stiffened slightly. "Um…" Jesse said. Mal then said something else to Jesse. "I… made a promise I need to keep and we were going to do that." Jesse told Nicole.

"Ah, okay." Nicole said, "I should get going as well. See you next time."

"Sure…" Jesse said as Nicole walked off.

And so, the trio went off to the Pokemon Center to get their Pokemon healed before the mission that night.

* * *

It was well past midnight at this point, but none of the trio were even the slightest bit sleepy. They approached the Day Care and carefully looked around to make sure no one was around.

"Mal said he could disable the security system if we could attach this device to it." James said as he held up a small machine.

"And it's up to us to get inside." Jesse said. "Our options are as such: We can search the outside for a key in, we can check the windows to see if they're unlocked, and we can force our way in if necessary."

"A key would be the easiest way to go." Meowth commented, "The system's designed to work easily for that method."

The trio nodded and split up, searching obvious locations. A small search revealed no keys, but they hadn't given up on this tactic yet. After meeting and discussing their results, they went together to the shed in the backyard to see if it was left there.

"This place looks like it could collapse at a moment's notice." Jesse noted as they opened the shed with a large creak. The trio did a thorough search of the shed, pocketed some items of possible value, and eventually found the key under a small box.

"Finally!" James exclaimed quietly. The trio then went to the front of the house and opened the door.

The door didn't squeak, to the trio's gratitude. They closed the door in a manner to prevent any sounds. They looked around without moving and Meowth saw a panel with buttons on it. He went over to it and installed the device, figuring the panel to be the security system.

"Mal, we've installed the device. Are you okay on your end?" Jesse asked.

"_Everything's fine here"_ Mal confirmed, _"I should have the security down in a moment."_

After a small bit of searching, the trio found the basement egg storage room; it was a door at the bottom of some stairs, and it was polished white. There were buttons on the right of the door, no doubt requiring a code to open.

"Is the security disabled?" Jesse asked Mal.

"_The doors are unlocked and the cameras are showing a loop of the past few minutes of footage."_ Mal said, _"The system is still receiving the OK message and there is no abnormalities. You're free to go ahead."_

The trio pulled on the shiny door and it swung wide open. The room they gazed upon was mostly racks lined up against walls, containing eggs of all varieties. A rough estimate would reveal about three hundred eggs in total.

The trio tentatively walked inside, and, when there was no resistance, they took off their backpacks and each of them pulled out devices similar to the portable Pokeball transporter, except larger. As one might expect, these were designed to transport eggs through to the other end, where an automated system would move the eggs to Team Rocket storage.

The trio split up to opposite ends of the room and didn't waste any time pulling eggs out of their containers and transporting them. They had gotten halfway through the room when Mal spoke into their receivers _"Someone's trying to hack the system and sound the alarm!"_ He cried.

"Can you stop them?" Jesse asked.

"_I can try, but whoever this is is an amazing hacker."_ Mal said, _"There's a good possibility I might fail. In any case, keep taking as many eggs as you can, so we can get the most profit out of this mission nonetheless."_

The trio then continued their thievery, albeit slightly uneasy about their situation. There were only a few dozen eggs left when a loud alarm blared through the house.

"Mal, what happened?" James asked.

"_The hacker has completely overwhelmed my system."_ Mal said in defeat, _"It was all I could do to disable the connection between the machine and our headquarters before something _really_ disastrous happened. I'm afraid you're on your own now."_

"Well great." Jesse muttered as the three of them continued to steal eggs.

* * *

"Gyaa!" Ash cried as the alarm sounded, waking him up.

"What's happening?" Dawn asked blearily.

"Nothing good, I'm sure." Brock responded.

The three of them got up and exited the room at the same time Angie exited her room.

"Angie, what's going on?" Ash asked.

"We're being robbed!" Angie replied frantically as she started to run downstairs. Ash and co. followed her.

Within a few short seconds, Angie reached the door leading to the egg storage room. The door was wide ajar, and Angie could see that the shelves were empty of eggs. The group rushed further into the room, where they saw Jesse, James, and Meowth frantically snatching eggs from the shelves.

"It's you three again!" Ash yelled, "Why couldn't you have just given up already?"

"Well unlike you twerp types, we of Team Rocket are persistent until the end." James declared, standing up. "Jesse, Meowth, keep stealing the eggs; I'll buy us some time."

"Wow." Dawn remarked, "I'm actually kinda surprised you didn't go through your whole motto routine for once."

"You'll soon see that that silly tendency of ours is long one, among many other fallacies we faced in our previous encounters." James said cockily as he drew up a Pokeball. "Go, Horsea!" James threw the Pokeball and the shiny Horsea appeared, ready for battle.

"A Horsea!" Ash said as he drew out his Pokdedex and pointed it at Horsea.

"Horsea, the Dragon Pokemon." The Pokedex said, "It is known to shoot down flying bugs with precision blasts of ink from the surface of the water."

"Doesn't it look like it's a different colour than most Horsea?" Dawn asked.

"I think it could be a Shiny Pokemon." Brock said, "Like Ash's Noctowl from back in Johto."

"Pikachu, we can take 'em!" Ash said to his companion. Pikachu nodded and jumped down onto the battlefield, cheeks sparkling. "Uhh…" Ash's enthusiasm vanished when he saw that there was a small army of Horsea in front of Pikachu. All those Horsea then started to zip around the room randomly at high speeds, leaving transparent blue afterimages behind.

"Huh?" Ash asked, "What's going on?"

"Dragonbreath!" James called. Every last one of the Horsea, not missing a beat in their random moving, shot a Dragonbreath at Pikachu. Surrounded on all sides, there was no way for Pikachu to doge the attack and he was struck easily, falling to one side.

Ash's eyes widened, "Pikachu was only hit by one of those!" He exclaimed.

"'Strategem Blur' is a combination of Double Team and Agility." James explained, "I'd like to see you work your way out of this one, since the _real_ Horsea is moving just as fast and randomly as the duplicates. Bubblebeam!"

The Horsea all shot a large beam of bubbles at Pikachu, who tried to dodge but was hit anyways.

"Pikachu, you can see through the illusion!" Ash called, "Just focus and you'll be able to see!"

Pikachu nodded and narrowed his eyes, his breathing slowing in concentration. He was trying to discern which was the real Horsea but was having trouble since the real one was moving so fast it was hard to keep focusing on it.

"Aurora Beam!" James called. The Horsea shot rainbow beams of light at Pikachu, who dodged correctly this time.

"All right! Good job!" Ash cheered.

From the other side of the room, Jesse and Meowth had just finished teleporting the last of the eggs and nodded to James.

"Sorry, twerps." He said, "But I think it's time to run." As soon as James said that, his Zubat (who hatched shortly after they started training) snatched Ash's hat, providing a distraction large enough to allow the trio to dash past Ash and co. and through the door.

"My hat!" Ash yelled as he turned to pursue them, but they were already long gone, their skills at running away showing.

"All the eggs I was taking care of…" Angie said softly, close to tears. "What'll my parents think?"

Ash put a hand on Angie's shoulder, "Angie, we are going to get those eggs back, I promise." He said solemnly. A fire appeared behind his eyes. "Team Rocket… You're gonna pay for this!"

* * *

Agents Jesse and James, Observation Report 3:

It seems the subjects are starting to become real criminals, in both spirit and talent. They went to Sinnoh this time and stole all of the Pokemon eggs from the Solaceon Day Care. Their plan was well executed, and the security system was successfully fooled.

Figuring they could actually manage to benefit Team Rocket with the completion of this mission, I decided to make things more difficult for them. I hacked the security system again and sounded the alarm. The residents of the Day Care woke up and came down to investigate.

Unfortunately, the subjects managed to use some strategy with their recently acquired Pokemon to buy themselves enough time to complete their mission and escape. They got out of the Day Care with all of the eggs, some of which contain very valuable and powerful Pokemon, and took their flight back to Kanto with no problems.

The residents of the house appear to be closing down the Day Care temporarily in order to give chase to the subjects. This does not seem to be a detriment to our interests in any way and may in fact help us to achieve our goals.

Agent 37, out

* * *

"Quite impressive." Mr. Carth said to the trio once they were back at the headquarters. "324 eggs, the total stock of the Solaceon Day Care. A job well done, even with the difficulties you faced. Now, seeing as this is a public Day Care, the eggs are mostly common Pokemon eggs from the townsfolk, like that of a Paras or a Buizel. However, a decent amount of those eggs are especially valuable."

"So that means we actually made a positive impact on Team Rocket for once?" James asked hopefully.

"Indeed." Mr. Carth affirmed, "These Pokemon will make excellent profit for us on the black market, as well as teams for other agents. Now, we were planning to send you all out on more missions to catch these Pokemon, but since we have their eggs in the bunch you stole, we figured you could take some of those eggs for your teams."

"Really?" Jesse asked.

"Of course." Mr. Carth said, "Although, I think it should be mentioned that for the sake of type balance, you won't be getting _all_ of the rarest Pokemon in the batch, like a Dratini egg or something, but these will fill out your teams nicely. Jesse, we have a Magnemite egg and a Rhyhorn egg that you will keep. James, we have a Baltoy egg and a Snorunt egg for you, and Meowth…"

"Eh?" Meowth asked, "I get some too?"

"We figured it was time for you to start getting your own team." Mr. Carth said, "It'd be a good idea for you to start with Pokemon hatched from eggs. And from those eggs, you will be getting a Swinub, a Duskull, and a Beldum."

"Wow." Meowth said.

"Now," Mr. Carth said, "This will take a while to sort out, and you just completed a full mission, so I'd say you three should take the rest of the day off."

* * *

Ash and co. (now including Angie) started small in their search for Team Rocket. Namely, they went to the Solaceon Police Station. It was still nighttime, so there was only one officer in the room. They gave the officer a description of what happened as well as a detailed description of Jesse, James, and Meowth. The office said he'd look into the situation. The next day, when the group came into the station again, the officer came to them and told them that the trio had been sighted on one of the airplanes to Kanto.

"Kanto?" Ash said, "That's where Team Rocket Headquarters is!"

"It looks like they've stepped up their game." Brock noted, "Now that they're taking orders from superiors instead of pure initiative."

"At any rate, we need to go to Kanto if we want to find them." Angie said, "I'll call my parents and tell them what happened, and then we can go."

"You're coming with us?" Ash asked.

"Of course!" Angie exclaimed, "I have to go since those eggs were _my_ responsibility! And besides…" A blush formed on her face.

"And besides what?" Ash asked.

"Nothing!" Angie protested, "Anyways, I still have to call my parents."

Angie turned and walked over to one of the video telephone stations at the side of the building. She dialled a phone number into the machine and waited a few minutes.

"Hello, is that Angie?" Angie's mother asked from the screen.

"Yes, mom, it's me," Angie said, "Listen, something's happened-"

"Is that Ash and his friends in the background?" Angie's mom interrupted, "That's odd, I thought they were supposed to be at the Sinnoh League."

"Long story," Angie dismissed, "But that's not why I'm calling."

"Oh?" Angie's mom said, "Then what else has happened?"

"You see…" Angie said, "Well, you know those guys from Team Rocket?"

"The ones that tried to steal that Lickilicky?" Angie's mom asked.

"Yeah, those guys," Angie confirmed. "They came back today."

"Oh dear!" Angie's mom exclaimed, "What happened?"

"They…" Angie's voice trailed off.

"Team Rocket broke into the Day Care and stole all of the Pokemon Eggs," Ash cut in, "We tried to stop them, but they managed to get away."

Angie's mom looked at them with an expression mixing shock, loss, slight disapproval, and, eventually, pity.

"Look," Ash said, "We're not gonna let those guys just get away with what they did. We already know they left for Kanto last night, so we're gonna follow them there and get the eggs back."

"We called so that I could get permission to go with them." Angie said, "Those eggs were my responsibility, after all."

"Hmm…" Angie's mother wondered, "Alright. But you need to properly close down the Day Care first. Call the trainer of that Glameow you're raising and tell her to come back for it soon. Then, once the trainer has gotten their Pokemon back, put the 'closed' sign on the front door and make sure everything's locked."

The phone call continued with Angie's mother instructing Angie on all the things she needs to do in preparation for a journey.

* * *

At the Sinnoh League, you wouldn't be able to tell at first glance that there was a criminal attack imminent. In fact, you wouldn't be able to tell at all, since virtually no one knew it was happening and only one person who _had_ heard believed it.

Unfortunately, that one person was Tobias, and he had already given up on trying to inform anyone else. He had fulfilled Ash's request to try and help Ash's rivals, but he hadn't had too much success. He had only had success with Nando, who decided that the danger of criminals outweighed the possibility of victory, and he left politely. Barry had thought Tobias was trying to cheat him out of the competition and refused to listen to a word from Tobias afterwards. Conway had looked concerned at first, but refused to believe Tobias after he couldn't find any evidence to support the warning in his database.

Right now, Tobias wasn't trying to get anyone out of the League. Instead, he was acting on an idea so simple and useful that he was chastising himself for not thinking of it earlier.

He was going to warn Cynthia.

It was really obvious in retrospect. Cynthia, if warned and alert of the attack, would be able to adequately defend herself from it. He knew Team Aether wouldn't stick around long enough for a direct confrontation with the Champion, so if Cynthia managed to do this right, she could even keep a few of the trainers safe from the attack.

Tobias was walking down the hallway to her room, and as he glanced ahead he noticed some trainer at her door.

"What business do you have here?" Tobias said to the trainer, managing to pull off sounding very menacing.

The trainer turned his head to look at Tobias, who now seemed to be looming over him angrily.

"Uh…" The trainer tried to say something, but opted to just run away.

Tobias took a breath and knocked on the door.

"Miss Cynthia." Tobias said, "I wish to speak with you."

"I'm sorry." Cynthia's voice came from the other side of the door, "The League officials say that I shouldn't grant requests for contestants, as it would either show undue favour to some trainers over others or end up taking all of my time."

"I am not a contestant, and the matter I wish to speak with you about is important." Tobias told Cynthia. The door opened.

"Well then, I think we have something to talk about," Cynthia said, "Please come inside." Tobias nodded and stepped inside Cynthia's room. "If memory serves, you were a contestant at one point, but dropped out. Tobias, right?" Cynthia asked.

Tobias nodded again, "And do you know the reasons for me dropping out?"

"I'm afraid I don't," Cynthia admitted, "Is that the reason for your visit?"

"To an extent." Tobias said, "I dropped out because I cannot allow myself to be seen by the criminals that are going to attack the place."

Cynthia's eyes narrowed, "Criminals?" She said, "Here at the Sinnoh League?"

"Sadly so," Tobias said, "Sometime tonight, perhaps even this evening, criminals from the secret organization Team Aether will attack the Sinnoh League and steal as many Pokemon as they can."

"…How did you come across this information?" Cynthia asked, dubious.

Tobias sighed, "I have infiltrated their ranks as a spy. They do not know I am here, and assume I am still lost from a mission they sent me on a few weeks ago, in which I slipped away to try and help."

"Well then, we need to alert the authorities about this," Cynthia said, "This isn't a matter that should be left to civilians."

Tobias ground his teeth, this was getting old, "I've already tried that." He said, trying to hide his frustration but failing, "They refused to believe me. If you were to try and convince them, they would tell you it was 'a silly rumour', and possibly even call you delusional. No, they will be of no help."

"Then surely you have tried to evacuate the participants?" Cynthia asked.

"Only the top trainers; the ones with the most potential," Tobias responded, "Organizing a large-scale evacuation would attract the attention of the authorities, who would only cause more trouble. You are familiar with Ash and Paul, correct?"

"Yes, I was actually quite surprised when they withdrew," Cynthia commented, "They didn't strike me as the type of people who would give up easily. You mean to say you convinced them to withdraw?"

"I can assure you it was a hard decision for the both of them," Tobias said, "But we are getting off topic. Seeing as I have done the best I can and still I have failed, I was hoping you could keep a watchful eye tonight, and, if you do, there'd be a chance you could protect some trainers when the attack strikes."

"Are you doubtful of my strength?" Cynthia joked, "I'm fairly sure I could take them down if they tried to attack."

"You are the most powerful trainer in all of Sinnoh," Tobias acknowledged, "This is common knowledge to all, including those of Team Aether. They know that you are a threat to the mission if you get involved, so they will no doubt be using underhanded tactics to avoid a direct confrontation."

"I see," Cynthia said, "And what of you, can you help at all?"

"Unfortunately, no," Tobias said, "While my help may tip the balance in our favour, I cannot allow myself to be seen by them as a traitor. If I can manage to get back into the Team without any troubles, I could continue to gain information. I also know for a fact that Team Aether will have bigger plans than this, so their trust in me is of the utmost importance."

"Alright then," Cynthia nodded, "Is there anything else you wish to speak with me about?"

Tobias shook his head, "I have said all I needed to. It is time for me to take my leave."

As Tobias left Cynthia's room, the Champion shook her head, "Looks like tonight will be exciting." She said.

* * *

Just like during that day, no one at the Sinnoh League was any more aware that there was a criminal attack imminent. From what the public saw, Cynthia had just decided today was a good day to go around and meet some of the trainers. Some of them had asked her for a battle, but she always declined because 'she didn't want to discourage them right before the tournament.'

At precisely 8: 53 PM, the attack began.

At this time, most contestants were inside their rooms or someone else's. There were a few people training outside still, but they were expected to stop soon. Cynthia, who had, up until recently, been chatting with Conway about what the life of a Champion is really like, was now walking through the hallways of the building to the battlefields out back, hoping to find another trainer or two there.

She stopped abruptly in the middle of the hall. Something was wrong. Her senses told her that this was an ordinary hallway, but she still felt something was amiss.

Every Champion, sometime after receiving the title, is given preliminary Aura training by an Aura Guardian. The training is enough for small-range Aura Sight but no more than that. Cynthia also owns a Lucario, so she has more aptitude than other Champions did. Since Cynthia was alert from Tobias' warning, she decided to open up her Aura Sight, just to be safe.

She almost gasped when she saw what was wrong. The wall had apparently been blown in by an explosive force, and debris was scattered all over the floor. Standing just off to the side was a Zoroark, who was concentrating on maintaining the illusion surrounding the hallway. It apparently hadn't taken special notice to Cynthia yet.

A curious question passed through Cynthia's mind. With all the debris on the floor, how come no one had noticed it yet? Surely one of them would've felt it if they kicked a piece of wall around. Cynthia knelt down and reached for a nearby piece, only for her hands to seemingly grasp at air. That's what she felt through her hand, but her Aura Sight told her that she had picked up the piece of debris and was holding it in her hand. How odd. Illusions couldn't do _this_ much, could they?

Actually, Cynthia thought, if one could make an illusion that fooled sight, then with enough training it should be theoretically possible to fool the other senses, including touch. The only thing missing would be the actual reality of the situation, but with all sensory inputs under their control what real difference would it make?

But that was the thing. Having aura training meant Cynthia didn't rely on just five senses; she had a workable sixth sense. And one of her Pokemon did too.

With lightning quickness Cynthia's hand had dropped the debris and, in a flash, Lucario's Pokeball was flying through the air. The Zoroark maintaining the illusion took notice of this, and dropped the illusion of the wall. Cynthia's hand suddenly felt some specs of wall that had fallen off the debris piece.

Suddenly, Cynthia was on fire.

The Zoroark had shifted its attention to form a tactile illusion of flames covering every square inch of the Champion's body, delivering unimaginable pain at every nerve ending. Not even having enough time to scream in agony, Cynthia fell to the ground, body spasming.

Lucario, who had just then appeared from the Pokeball, saw the scene in front of him, including his trainer covered in flames on the ground. Not wasting a moment, Lucario noticed that the flames had no aura to them and opened his Aura Sight. He spotted the Zoroark and charged an Aura Sphere to throw at it.

The Zoroark dodged the Aura Sphere by jumping a ways down the hall, in the opposite direction of the Lucario. This didn't deter the Aura Pokemon though, as Lucario had already started Extremespeed and caught up to the Zoroark. Lucario tackled it further away, and kept up the momentum as he used a Force Palm to finish the Illusion Fox Pokemon off.

With the Zoroark unconscious, the illusion of flames stopped and Cynthia was safe. However, the sheer amount of pain and what her brain thought of as severe burns meant Cynthia was still hardly conscious, and not in condition to do more than twitch.

Lucario, already knowing the layout of the Sinnoh League building, scooped up Cynthia and rushed over to the small hospital for humans. The one doctor on watch was surprised to see the Champion in such a feeble state, but didn't hesitate to start helping.

A few minutes later, Cynthia opened her eyes and looked blearily at Lucario.

"Go…" She said slowly, "Help the… rest…" her voice trailed off. Lucario gave a look of worry to the doctor, who nodded to say that Cynthia was fine. Lucario then took off towards the rest of the building.

Using Extremespeed, Lucario zipped through the main portions of the building in moments, stopping only to knock out any other Zoroark covering up broken hallway walls.

Next, Lucario checked the other facilities in the building. There didn't seem to be any other Zoroark or anyone else around, so Lucario kept looking. He then decided to go look in the rooms for the contestants, thinking that there might be enemies in there.

He was right. The second room he came across had its door open and multiple Pokemon and a person standing inside, one Pokemon being a Zoroark to mask any indicator that they were in there. He rushed inside and threw an Aura Sphere at the Zoroark, who had no time to dodge and was knocked through the wall.

With the Zoroark not maintaining the illusion, the four trainers in the room quickly woke up and noticed the intruders. The lights were still off, so it was hard to see properly, but there was a person, a Sunflora, and a Duosion. The Duosion had been psychically stealing the Pokeball belts of the trainers, and the Sunflora had been swiping anything else that seemed valuable, like the trainers' backpacks.

The two Pokemon turned to face the Lucario, who was already using Force Palm on the Sunflora. The attack made the Sun Pokemon fly through the hole in the wall and fall to the ground a floor below, landing on Zoroark. The Duosion attempted to use Psychic on the Lucario, but couldn't get a firm grasp on him since Lucario was moving around the room at a fast speed.

Lucario then curled his hands into fists and stuck them next to each other. A blue light started flashing from inside the hands and Lucario pulled them apart, revealing a Bone Rush stick. Lucario used the stick to hit Duosion a few times with mild force, and then a final strike sending it through the wall as well, landing on top of Sunflora and Zoroark.

The Bone Rush disappeared and Lucario turned towards the criminal. The criminal frantically tossed his bag of trainer possessions to the Aura Pokemon and jumped out of the window, landing on all three of his Pokemon.

By this point the other trainers in the room had woken up, and they climbed out of their beds and looked at the sack on the floor.

"Thank you for saving our Pokemon from that criminal." One of them said, "I don't know what we would've done if you hadn't come along."

"Lucario." Lucario said, nodding. He then dashed out of the room, looking for another opponent, knowing there will be many more.

As he approached the next room with an open door, he certainly didn't expect a trap lying in wait for him. The Zoroark in that room had sensed the commotion in the room Lucario had just cleared and took precautions to prevent a repetition of those events. Since you couldn't see the illusion with Aura and it was designed to not trigger any senses there was no way for Lucario to know it was there.

As Lucario ran through the door, he felt like he had run into a brick wall. He reached up to grasp his snout from the pain, but his hands were chained to the ground and immobile. While he could see through the illusion with his Aura Sight, it was tricky to make your body respond when you couldn't feel it move in the first place. Then, the pain started.

One moment, Lucario was having molten lava poured over him, the next; he was being pummelled by a ridiculously huge Machamp. He was squished between the ceiling and the floor and subjected to countless other tortures. And through the whole time he had a really annoying itch that wouldn't go away no matter how much he scratched it.

Eventually, the illusion ended. Lucario, while physically fine, was mentally scarred and exhausted. He barely even felt it when the Snag Ball thrown by the Zoroark's trainer hit his forehead.

* * *

Well, that's about it for this chapter. Team Rocket pulled off their mission and got some new eventual team members. Angie joins up with Ash and co. in their new quest to find Team Rocket and get the Day-Care eggs back. And to top it all off, the attack on the Sinnoh League is launched.

Yes, I have a hard time coming up with non-silly battle cries. It's harder than it looks.

I really like the concept of an illusion being able to affect more than just the sense of sight. It allows for a more practical usage of the talent and it all gets more interesting from there.


	9. Aftermath and Prelude

Team Rocket Triumphs, Chapter 9: Aftermath and Prelude

* * *

Disclaimer: I don't own anything from this fanfic. There is original content but I'm not getting money for this anyways so why bother saying I own it?

* * *

Jonathan had been anticipating this meeting with mixed feelings of worry, hope, and dread. He had joined Team Rocket so that he could meet this person, he wasn't denying that, but some part of him was worried that he might not like his past.

Still, while he was on his way from lunch to basic training, Jonathan was quite surprised when he encountered Jesse, James, and Meowth in the same hallway.

"Hey, it's you three!" Jonathan called out enthusiastically, "Finally!"

The trio stiffened. They could tell from the voice easily enough that it was Jonathan that had found them. And from their past experiences, meeting a person for the second time was usually bad news.

Nevertheless, they turned to face Jonathan as he ran up to them. "Sorry," Jonathan said, "I forgot to introduce myself. I have absolutely no idea what my name is, but people around here call me Amnesia. You three are one of the only things I remember from before I lost my memory."

The trio was baffled by this. Lost his memory and joined Team Rocket? Either it was a clever plot to get them off guard, or he was being sincere. Well, it couldn't hurt to assume the latter.

"Ah yes," James recalled, "We met you at Petalburg Woods, didn't we?"

"Yeah, that's it!" Jonathan cheered, "Yes! Now, do any of you know my name?"

"If memory serves, you called yourself Jonathan, a Pokemon Strategist," Meowth said, "You were in Petalburg Woods looking for a certain Shroomish that we had recently caught."

"Jonathan…" Jonathan murmured, "Not the name I'd have chosen for myself, but hey, it's much better than Amnesia. And you say I was a Pokemon Strategist?"

"One of high calibre too," Jesse added, "Only teaching the strongest moves to your Pokemon and picking only Pokemon that complimented complex strategies." This might not all be as true to the extend that Jesse claims, but it helps to give positive feedback.

"I figured as much," Jonathan said, thinking of his remaining two Pokemon: a Forretress and a Chansey, "Um, do you have any idea about what happened in there? I'm sorry to pester you, but I really want to know as much as I can."

The trio slightly stiffened again. They very well couldn't say they drove the poor guy to tears after stealing his Pokemon in battle, and that they had no idea how he lost his memory.

"Let's see," James started, "After you found us when we caught the Shroomish, we had a little battle against your Pokemon. Just a friendly bout, that's all."

Meowth caught on and joined in. "After we were finished, you started to leave and then you were ambushed by a small band of thieves. Not high class thieves like us and the rest of Team Rocket, but the kind that steal your wallet and hit you on the head with a baseball bat."

"Goodness!" Jonathan exclaimed, "Is that what happened to me?"

Jesse shook her head, "Thankfully not. The band's leader's main Pokemon, a Pikachu, used Thunderbolt on you and they stole your Pokemon while you were recovering. We were still there though, so we confronted them with our Pokemon."

"It was an epic battle, too," James added in, "Moves were flying all over the place and tearing up the area. One of the members of the band of thieves had a ridiculously strong Happiny, who was chucking heavy things all over the place. In the middle of the battle, one of them hit you in the head and knocked you out."

"That must've been how I lost my memory," Jonathan mused, "What happened next?"

"Well," Meowth said, "We chased after the thieves, trying to get your Pokemon back, but they were too fast and got away. We turned around and tried to find you, but we had gotten ourselves lost. We're actually lucky we managed to get out of the Woods ourselves, and there was no way we'd have been able to find you."

"I see, that's understandable," Jonathan agreed, "What did these thieves look like? I want to know so that I can get my Pokemon back."

"The leader was wearing jeans and had a black vest with a yellow stripe across the middle over a white shirt," Jesse said, "He had black, pointy hair and a red and black hat with a blue logo on it that resembles the top half of a Pokeball. The guy with the Happiny looked taller and older than the leader. He had spiky hair too, except this guy's hair went straight up instead of to the sides. He had really squinty eyes, enough so that you can't tell whether or not they're open or closed. He wears a green shirt and grey pants, and he had a dull orange vest with grey parts on it."

"There's one more," James said, "This one's a girl with a Piplup. She had long dark blue hair and a white hat with a pink Pokeball logo. She wears a black sleeveless dress that ends up as a ridiculously short, pink skirt that flares out at the bottom. She also wears pink boots that reach almost up to her knees."

"Odd, they don't sound too dangerous from your description," Jonathan wondered, "And that's so detailed too…"

"We've had our fair share of conflicts with those crooks," Meowth admitted, "We kinda know them off by heart now. But believe me, they're as dangerous as they are innocent looking. No matter what, you can't trust them, no matter what they say. Anything that comes out of their mouths is bound to be a lie of some sort."

"I'll take that to heart," Jonathan nodded, "But anyways, I have to go to my training now, I'm late already." With that, Jonathan, the first real victim of the trio in a long time, ran off down the hallway.

"He's back." James stated.

"He's one of us." Jesse continued.

"He has no idea what's going on." Meowth finished.

* * *

"And you're sure that he's the one you Snagged those three Pokemon from?" Mr. Carth asked.

"Positive," Jesse said, "He looks the same, he sounds the same, and he remembers us."

"Oh dear, I hope he didn't cause too much of a fuss." Mr. Carth said.

"He has amnesia," James explained, "He didn't know any more about us except that we exist. We took advantage of the situation and retold his story, casting blame on the twerps."

"…And he believed you without question," Mr. Carth predicted, sighing. "Listen, I know it seemed like a good plan, but even better and safer tales have backfired on their weavers and put their mission in jeopardy."

"I don't see how this one can go wrong," Meowth said, "It's so simple, it's laughable. He sees the twerps and goes on a revenge rampage to get his three Pokemon back."

Mr. Carth narrowed his eyes, "And if the twerps claim not to know anything about what our little amnesiac's talking about?"

"We've said that those three can't be trusted," Jesse said confidently, "No matter what, he won't believe a word they say."

"Maybe so," Mr. Carth said, "But maybe not. It's situations like this that leave a person stuck between good and evil, not sure which is which or what he should do. It can really mess up that person's mind, and it wouldn't be too much of a stretch for Jonathan to go with the side that's, say, not a criminal organization bent on taking over the world. I'm not saying you did wrong by fabricating a story, it's just that casting blame on someone else is a delicate situation, and you need to be more careful when you do so."

The trio's collective faces fell. "Oh," James said, "Is there anything we should do about it?"

Mr. Carth sighed, "I'm afraid not. The best we can do now is to keep you three and Jonathan away from each other. The stack of lies that you built will inevitably have to have more amendments added to it to fit reality, and enough amendments, or a single irrefutable contradiction, and Jonathan will stop knowing what's real anymore. It's best for everyone if you keep away from him as much as possible to avoid this. On a completely different note: James, the adjustments have been made and field-testing is about to start. If all goes well the upgrade can be fully implemented in just over a week."

James smiled, "Excellent."

"What adjustments?" Jesse asked, "Is this some mechanical thing?"

Mr. Carth nodded, "James here has shown exceptional skill and talent for developing and improving machinery. It's obvious that he is a very smart person and, if he didn't want to be a field agent, we would have no problem accepting him as a scientist in our ranks. Heck, one of your little 'episodes' had you visit James' home and uncover a box with a high-tech security system made by your dad. A security system that transformed the box into a large robot capable of fending off both you and the twerps before flying away, I might add. Regardless of whether or not this skill is genetic, James has developed an awful lot of skill at that sort of thing. We were just discussing an advancement to a tool we're using that James came up with one night. Still, it's really not all that important right now. Now is the time for training, and we can, hopefully, manage to evolve Shroomish into Breloom either today or tomorrow if we work at it. James, we should also start working on evolving Zubat into Golbat, and Horsea still won't be evolving for a while, so we don't have to worry about that."

As Team Rocket spent the rest of the afternoon training, Meowth went to a special session on how he should handle being a trainer. He was taught all the things that the Pokemon would look for in their trainer, and that some of them would reject him due to his lack of humanity. He was taught how to handle all these things, and by the end of the day, he was absolutely certain that he could handle being a trainer. Also, he was given his very own Pokeball, which was, legally, his and his alone. Because after all, it'd be a little hard to handle a Pokeball when you would probably just get sucked into it yourself.

Back with Jesse and James, while neither of their Pokemon had evolved just yet, Shroomish perfected Headbutt, for all intents and purposes giving his Tackle a supercharge, and Zubat put some effort into learning Confuse Ray, but didn't quite perfect it.

Later that night, Bob was absolutely delighted to learn that Meowth was becoming a trainer of his own. While it was quite the unusual situation, Bob said it would develop Meowth's leadership and responsibility in the _proper_ way, and hopefully force out the concept that the world doesn't care about anyone. Bob firmly stated that once he got that down, Meowth would be a long way on the road to recovery.

* * *

"Hello everyone, and welcome to Sinnoh Now!" Rhonda, the cheerful reporter said, "But this is no time to be happy, because just last night, a horrible crime occurred at the Sinnoh League! A criminal organization broke into the facility and stole the Pokemon from all the trainers. The few who reacted to the situation were severely injured, mentally and in some cases physically, and are now recovering."

Rhonda, along with her news crew, were all inside the hospital section of the Sinnoh League building. The beds in sight of the camera held a total of about a dozen people sitting on them, among them were Cynthia and Conway, with a few other trainers.

Rhonda continued her talk to the viewers, "The current situation has all movements at the region's borders intensely scrutinized, with absolutely no one suspicious getting out. Still, there is always the chance that they get out undetected, but we do the best we can. Anyways, right now we have gotten permission to talk to the select few who were directly involved in trying to prevent the crisis, including our very own Champion Cynthia." Rhonda turned to Cynthia and put the microphone up to her face, "Cynthia, would you care to recount the incident?"

Cynthia, her eyes stone cold, nodded, "They came in by blowing up the walls in various hallways, and then sneaking their way through to the living quarters of the trainers to steal their Pokemon. They used Zoroark to cover up the holes in the walls with their illusion abilities, taken to a nightmarish degree."

Rhonda blinked, "Would you care to elaborate on that?" She asked.

"The Zoroark used in the attack were trained to use tactile illusions, ones that fooled the sense of touch. Given the skill with which they wielded these illusions, it would be impossible to distinguish reality from illusion."

"If that's the case, then how come you knew about it?" Rhonda asked.

Cynthia thought for a moment, and then continued, "I had an… informant tell me about the imminent attack. The informant told me that it was futile to try and alert any authorities, as there was no evidence to point towards. Instead, he told me to keep a sharp eye out for any trouble. Nevertheless, I didn't know about the Zoroark or their illusion capabilities until the attack started. As a Champion, I have basic aura training from the Aura Guardians. Not a formidable talent, but enough for short-range aura sight. This is how I noticed the intruders, as their illusions did not cover aura sight."

Rhonda shivered, "It's a bit creepy to think that such deceptive things are possible. But one question that comes to mind is that, if you knew about their powers, how come they still won? You are the Champion, after all."

Cynthia grimaced, "I lost because I underestimated them at every step. As I encountered a Zoroark guarding an entry point, it dropped its illusion and focused on me instead. It made an illusion around me to make me feel in all my senses that I was on fire. It was such terrible agony… you just _can't_ imagine how painful it was. That was the level of pain that, were it real, I would've _died_ from it, and while it wasn't real, the pain was beyond anything I'd have thought possible."

"Is that everything?" Rhonda asked, a bit worried about what the rest of the story might hold.

Cynthia shook her head, "Thankfully, I managed to call my Lucario out before I caught fire. Once Lucario easily dispatched the Zoroark, he took me here, and then went off through the building to fight off the rest. That's where I underestimated them again. I should've sent out the rest of my team to help, but I let Lucario do it alone."

"Oh dear," Rhonda said, "Do you have any idea what happened?"

Cynthia shook her head, "All I know is that the attack succeeded and Lucario would've come back by now. There is still the hope that he is tracking them down, but I think it's more likely they got the upper hand over him and…" Cynthia's voice trailed off as tears appeared in her eyes.

Rhonda was silent for a moment, possibly to see if Cynthia was going to add something, or maybe some other reason, but she soon turned her attention back to the camera, "And that's it. Apparently these criminals are very clever and strong, being able to presumably take out the Champion's Lucario. Let's see what some of the other witnesses have to say."

Rhonda walked to the next bed over and held the microphone out to Conway, who was seated there. "And how do you recall the incident?" She asked.

Conway, looking weary and somewhat deflated, glanced towards the camera, "I was one of the last people to head inside at night, and as I walked through to my room with Slowking, he pointed towards a room just a few doors ahead. He didn't seem alarmed or anything, just curious. In retrospect, it was probably him sensing a cloud of Dark energy protecting the area from psychic readings, but the lack of sight there was curious enough to Slowking, and we went to investigate. We opened the door and walked right into a brick wall, or, in this case, the illusion of one. I recoiled backwards and fell down. Down and down through what seemed to be an endless pit, until I hit bottom. I don't remember much after that, but I can assure you it was probably painful. If I were to hazard a guess as to what was happening, I'd say that there was a Zoroark, and maybe a member of the criminal organization in there, and the Zoroark was taking precautions to keep me from interfering. When I woke up, I'm sad to say that all of the Pokemon I had with me here were simply gone, as well as any valuables I had."

Rhonda noted that Conway's face wasn't showing much emotion, "You don't seem to be all that upset by it," She said.

Conway tiredly shook his head, "No, it's very upsetting, but it's just that I haven't really accepted what happened as reality yet. My subconscious brain is still clinging onto the concept that things will just return to normal soon enough; that it might still all be a dream that I could just wake up from. That, and it was a mentally exhausting experience."

In this manner, Rhonda interviewed all of the rest of the victims of the attack. While some of them had curious insights (One of them had tripped over a piece of debris, but the tactile illusion made her not feel it, and had had some trouble getting her senses and reality to coordinate with each other afterwards), others had nothing to offer that hadn't already been said. Across the entirety of the Sinnoh League, however, it was a given that their Pokemon had been stolen and their belongings pillaged. While most of them have other Pokemon at home or someplace else, they had been, for the most part, been bringing their best and favourite to the League, and some of them were traumatized by the situation.

"Now that we've interviewed everyone," Rhonda continued, "Let's see what the Sinnoh Region is doing about this situation. Now, we know already that the borders are being strictly policed, but what's to stop something like this from happening again?"

If you were watching the TV, you would see a small screen appear in one corner. If you weren't, it looked like Rhonda was talking to some sort of imaginary friend. The screen contained a person with a dark blue coat and a cool hat of similar colour. He had an air of danger and gentleness about him.

"This is Riley, one of Sinnoh's Aura Guardians." Rhonda explained, "Riley, what are the Aura Guardians doing in response to this?"

"We intend to learn about how these illusions work, and find a way to suppress their power and render them useless against aura users," Riley said, "If this proves successful, we will include training programs for guards to learn the essentials of aura." He sighed, "It will be a drastic change of mood from what we are used to, teaching the masses instead of secluded training and meditation, but it seems like there is no other choice, considering what is going on in the world today."

"Even then, we know that these criminals were clever enough to make up the illusion plan in the first place, so it stands to reason that they will come up with another tactic," Rhonda stated.

"True," Riley admitted, "But if we don't do this research and teaching, they can still use the illusion plan. Like it or not, they have the upper hand in that they can attack with any new plan they have without us being able to prepare a proper countermeasure. If I were an expert in such things and not an Aura Guardian, I would recommend that we increase security so as to minimize losses from all possible attack styles."

The rest of the news broadcast was spent with Rhonda talking to various people about what was going to be done about what was widely referred to now as the 'Illusion League'. At the very end, no less than a minute from the end of the broadcast, the boom operator's grip faltered and the boom hit Rhonda on the head, causing her to become infuriated with the boom operator.

Oh yeah, and the League decided to continue. Many of the trainers had other Pokemon to fight with, and the officials didn't want to lose money from all the wasted publicity. Hooray for management people only caring for themselves!

* * *

Giovanni was frustrated. Understandably so, but he was still frustrated from the news that had just aired. He had even had to take a few deep breaths to keep from hitting his desk as a way to vent anger.

Just a few moments ago, Matori had informed him that there had been a massive criminal operation 'the likes of which we have not accomplished'. Giovanni had calmly asked for a summary of the events, but Matori had said it was far easier to watch the news story on it.

As soon as he heard that it was an attack utilizing Zoroark and tactile illusions, he knew which group it was. No other group would bother with such a large operation on this side of the planet if they were based in Unova, and only one other organization had easy access to Unovian Pokemon on this side of the planet, as well as having the cleverness to make up such a strategy using Zoroark's unique talents.

It was true that he was annoyed about Sinnoh effectively going into lockdown. He had a few agents in there, but he could still maintain contact with his operatives safely (The situation wasn't _nearly_ bad enough for the government to listen in on communications, and even if they did, it wouldn't stop Team Rocket for long), and he could retrieve them if need be. What frustrated him the most was that the operation had succeeded with such a bounty. Giovanni was well aware that Team Aether was his rival in crime, and they had just gotten a large leg up on Team Rocket by stealing the majority of the most powerful Pokemon in the Sinnoh Region.

It was clear that he needed to step things up if he wanted to survive. Neither organization had taken the offensive against each other until now because of multiple reasons. The primary one is that their operations didn't really conflict with one another's, and there was no real animosity between the two groups. Also, it would detract from their resources and be a large waste of money, which is something both organizations want to avoid. But the way things were shaping up now, it seemed as if Team Aether could very well decide that they would be better off disposing of their competition before they became obtrusive.

However, it is well known animal psychology that a prey, upon seeing a predator, will immediately become defensive, and that a cornered animal is often at its most deadly. This was also true to an extent with Team Rocket. They, the 'prey' in this situation, had to become defensive if they were to ensure their safety, and if Team Aether started pressuring them, things were definitely going to get messy.

It wasn't going to be all that comfortable, he would need to take a lot of risks that he wouldn't normally take, but there was no way he would just sit back and let a fellow criminal organization he had just yesterday considered to not be a threat to crush all he had worked for into dust.

Giovanni strode out of his office. He had some missions to assign.

* * *

"What do you mean I'm not allowed to go to Kanto!?" Ash accused the secretary at the airport.

"If you saw the news this morning," The secretary calmly said, "You would know that a major attack was launched on the Sinnoh League. We are doing the best we can to prevent the criminals to get out of Sinnoh and into other regions." The secretary looked down on Ash condescendingly, "You withdrew from the Sinnoh League a mere week before the Illusion League incident with no specific reason. That makes you suspect, and, no matter what reasoning you might have, I simply cannot allow you to leave Sinnoh through this airline until the situation calms down."

"I'm not a criminal!" Ash protested, "You can trust me on that!"

The secretary shook her head slowly, "Regardless of whether or not you're a criminal or involved in the Illusion League incident, I have been forbidden from allowing you to head to Kanto. If I let you, I could get fired. And personally, I value my job over making an illegal exception for a trainer I barely know the name of."

Ash growled, "Then let me speak with your manager so that I can convince them that I'm not a danger!"

The secretary sighed and walked through a door behind her desk. A moment later and she came back with what Ash and co. presumed was the manager.

"I take it you're Ash Ketchum." The manager stated.

Ash nodded, "Yes, Mr. Manager," He said politely, "We were told that we aren't allowed to leave Sinnoh."

The manager laughed jovially, "Well, no one's stopping you from leaving. You just can't use our planes to leave. I'm certain there are plenty of ferries that would love to take you to Kanto if you can stand a few days of sea travel."

Ash didn't so much as blink, "Please sir, it's an emergency! My friend Angie here was robbed by a gang of thieves who took off to Kanto and we need to find them."

The manager only chuckled this time, "Is that so? Well, I hate to break it to you, but you being in Kanto isn't going to make that much of a difference. However useful you think you might be, I can assure you that the Kanto police are more than capable of handling the situation without your intervention. But we're getting off topic. It has been an order from the Sinnoh government that I cannot allow people affiliated with the Illusion League to use these planes. I also have to be stricter about my security protocols, but that's a different order. Don't worry, I believe you're not up to any trouble, but I really don't have any choice in the matter. Now, you'd better go find a ferry to take you to Kanto if you're really sure you need to be there ASAP, but if you stay here any longer I'm afraid I'm going to have to force you to leave." The manager's face and voice was still happy and jovial, but there was something about the voice that made it quite clear that there was no room for argument.

Ash's shoulders sagged and he put out a depressed, "Yes sir," before leaving the building. After he got out, he took a few deep breaths and turned to face his travelling companions. "Well," He said, "It looks like we struck out here, so that means we need to seek out the fastest ferry we can to get to Kanto!"

As it turns out, the major ferry lines are under the same tightened security the airport was. Ash and co. spent all day searching for a ferry line that was willing to take a trainer affiliated with the Illusion League out of the country right after the incident happened, but, to their surprise and frustration, found no luck.

"I don't suppose you know anyone that could help us?" Ash asked Angie idly as they walked to their next stop.

Angie looked slightly upwards and thought for a moment, "Now that you mention it," She said, "I remember one of our clients was a freelance ferry driver. He was very proud of the fact that the didn't take orders from anyone but himself."

Ash's face brightened, "Really? Do you think he'd be willing to give us a ride?"

Angie looked concerned, "I dunno. He seemed a bit miserly when he returned for his Wooper. He claimed he didn't owe us as much money as he did."

"There's only one way to find out," said Brock, "And right about now it looks like our best option."

* * *

"Are you serious?" A man said while standing next to his boat, "You want to be a passenger on my boat after what that Day Care business of yours did to me?"

"For the last time!" Angie exclaimed, clearly frustrated, "You were charged what you agreed to, no more and no less!"

The man snorted, "Yeah right. Fair prices aren't that high."

"Please," Ash cut in, "We don't want to be troublesome or anything, but we need to get to Kanto and your ship is the best way to get there."

The man was clearly not moved. "Eh, just go take a plane there," He said, "It'll save a lot of time. Specifically _my_ time."

"The plane stations won't take us to Kanto," Angie said, "They think Ash, Dawn, and Brock are suspicious, but they're not! Please, if money is what you're worried about, we can pay for the trip."

"Interesting…" The man stroked his chin thoughtfully, "You were part of that big old Illusion League thing?"

"Actually," Ash said, "We withdrew from the competition so that we wouldn't end up involved in the Illusion League. Our wanting to head to Kanto is because of a completely unrelated emergency."

"Well," The man said, "I guess I've gotta respect a man who can resort to less than honest means once they've exhausted other options. I know that taking a ferry isn't exactly dishonest, but you're still trying to leave the region after explicitly being told you're not allowed to." This made Ash fidget uncomfortably. "Very well. Let it never be said that Captain Nauta turns down honest travellers in a pinch." And in a lower tone, "(Especially since this is kinda my _job_ and turning people down is a complete waste of money and business)."

Ash and co. were delighted. "Wow, thanks!" Ash said.

Nauta's eye glinted. "However," He said, "There is still the issue of payment to work out. I say that the cost of transport will take about 20 000 Pokedollars ($200). So, if you include a fee per person, that brings the total up to 30 000 Pokedollars ($300)."

"That won't be a problem at all," Angie said confidently. In fact, it was actually less money than they would've been spending on the plane.

"Then I guess we have a deal," Nauta said, "We leave in two hours, so make sure you're here by then."

* * *

At Team Rocket Headquarters the next day, the trio had just entered Mr. Carth's office to be greeted with unexpected news.

"I got a direct order from Giovanni yesterday," Mr. Carth said, "It appears we will soon need to take a short break in our training to go on an honest to goodness mission."

"A mission?" Jesse asked.

James looked puzzled, "Why did he suddenly feel the need to assign one?"

Mr. Carth's eyebrow rose. "Oh, you didn't hear?" He said, "Team Aether, our competition, recently robbed the Sinnoh League of all of the trainer's Pokemon. We have to do these missions to catch up to them."

"And he trusts us enough to put us on a mission?" Meowth stated, "That's real nice of him."

"Well," Mr. Carth said, "It isn't so much a matter of you being trusted with this as it is that every available agent is needed at this point. Additionally, instead of you going on a mission by yourselves, you'll be collaborating with a few other groups to pull off a larger operation. If I'm correct, you are familiar with Butch and Cassidy, right?"

Jesse suddenly started to growl, "So we have to work with those two?" She asked.

"You know…" Meowth added in, "I don't think his name is Butch. That doesn't seem quite right. I'm pretty sure it's Biff."

"I can safely assure you that his name is, in fact, Butch," Mr. Carth stated, "And as for you, Jesse, I'm afraid you _will_ have to work with Butch and Cassidy, among others. This is not something you can protest or ignore."

Jesse didn't pursue the point, but sounded quite grumpy for a while afterwards.

"So what exactly is this mission going to be anyways?" James asked.

"You may or may not be aware of this," Mr. Carth said, "As it happened just before your arrival, but two of our Team Rocket Elite Agents, Shapu and Buki, were captured and imprisoned by the police in Fuschia City. Their mission was scrapped and they have been serving jail time for the last week or so. The mission is quite simple: A jailbreak of Shapu and Buki, returning them back to Team Rocket HQ."

"Shapu and Buki…" Jesse pondered for a moment, "Right! They're those two people who are extremely good at their work but tend to be obnoxiously loud at all the wrong times!"

"Oh, those two!" James and Meowth followed.

"Seeing as this is an important mission," Mr. Carth continued, "A full plan of procedure is being drawn up, taking advantage of each group's unique talents. So in the meantime, we should increase the intensity of our training in preparation for the mission." Mr. Carth paused for a slight moment. "Especially considering your probable role in the mission."

"Our role?" James asked, "You know what it is?"

Mr. Carth chuckled, "Not officially. The plan could change at any time, but first consider this: If someone were to consider what areas of crime you excel at most, what would you expect them to choose as your best talent?"

A moment of silence passed through the group as the trio contemplated their answer. They answered in sequence:

"Distraction."

"Target practice."

"Punching bags."

"You're half right." Mr. Carth said, "Your group has an inherent remarkable lack of subtlety. We've been improving that, but you're still outclassed in that respect quite easily. You are, however, good at causing panic and drawing attention by showing up. Storming the front gates of the castle instead of sneaking inside, if you will. Now the people I spoke to said they intended to incorporate this into their plans, so it's likely that you will end up drawing all the personnel in the prison to fight you off while the other agents do their job."

"So we just barge in like we usually do and make their lives miserable?" Jesse asked eagerly.

"In effect, yes. But this is a bit off topic. Now, about the training…"

"I'd assume you want us to refine our mastery of the arts of storming the castle," Meowth confidently stated.

"Correct," Mr. Carth nodded. "Unfortunately, this means we don't have time to improve your teams to the point where they'd evolve, but I think that can wait until after the mission. Still, they will be put on specialized training regimens to prepare them for the conditions to come."

James' head lifted a little, "What about the eggs?"

"They weren't going to hatch anytime soon anyways, and it'd probably be best just to leave them until after the mission. Nothing to worry about. Now, all three of you are going to be facing the same training, as Meowth has to get used to his eventual role as leader of his own little force, and training like this will help him greatly."

"What sort of training is this, anyways?" Jesse asked.

* * *

"Ya know, Jess," Meowth said, "Sometimes it helps to keep your mouth shut."

Each member of the trio was currently standing on top of their own elevated platform, about seven feet by seven feet in size. Meowth's cage being the exception, at four feet by four feet. Surrounding the rings were a large amount of metal bars, allowing sight inside and outside but completely preventing any sort of escape.

Meanwhile, off to the side, their instructor laughed heartily, "Remember, just survive for five minutes and you pass. All of you ready?"

All three members of the trio shook their heads frantically in the negative. "Good then!" The instructor ignored them and pulled a lever on the wall of the room. The wall at the opposite end of the cages from the trio opened up, and the Pokemon inside stepped forwards.

There were two Ursaring, both wearing boxing gloves, and a Teddiursa, with Meowth getting the Teddiursa. Jesse and James tensed up in fear, but honestly, they were expecting this. Meowth let out a sigh of relief.

The two Ursaring stepped up to the cage and opened the door to it. While they could easily have fit if they turned a little sideways, it seemed that such an entrance wasn't befitting of these Hibernator Pokemon, and they reached to the bars at the side of the door and pressed them outwards, granting them room to enter. The Teddiursa merely opened the door and stepped inside.

"Why do we need to do this again?" Jesse asked.

"I heard something about needing to be able to keep safe in chaotic environments," James replied.

"Annnnddddd… Begin!" The instructor called, starting a large digital clock on the wall to start counting down from 5:00.

The Ursaring immediately dashed forwards to Jesse and James, taking large swipes at them. The two human members of the trio ducked under the blows and ran behind their Ursaring. The Hibernator Pokemon turned around and attacked again faster than anything its size had a right to.

Meowth was feeling quite happy with his partner this time, though. He looked at the Teddiursa, who looked more confused than anything, and said to himself:

"I feel bad for Jesse and James. They've gotta deal with Ursaring, but all I have to survive is a Teddiursa."

As if on cue, the Teddiursa in question leaped forwards like a tornado, eyes red, claws pointed forwards, and teeth bared. In mid-flight, the Little Bear Pokemon split into four copies of itself, all rampaging towards Meowth in a fury.

"Who taught this kid Double Teeeaaaam!?" Meowth cried as he tried futilely to dodge the small package of speeding death coming from all sides.

* * *

"Alright, Pokemon," Suime said to the collected assortment of Jesse and James' Pokemon, "What we're preparing for is going to effectively be an all out brawl. In these situations, you will have to face attackers from all sides and act without trainer orders for the most part. They can't concentrate on everyone at once. In the interest of preparing you for conditions like this, I've decided we're going to put all of you in a Battle Royale to claim victory, in which you only have your own intelligence to guide you." Suime glanced around the room, which was devoid of tables and furniture, "Nothing in here is easily breakable, so feel free to attack with power, but not enough to, say, damage walls."

The Pokemon nodded, and Suime backed out of the room to an observation area, shielded with a transparent substance that, considering the room, was probably not glass.

All of the Pokemon spread out a little, organizing themselves so that they might have the upper hand when battle starts. Wobbuffet was the only one who stood still where he was.

"Begin!" Suime called from behind the glass(?)

Yanmega was the first to move, calling up rocks to form Ancientpower to attack Zubat, evidently intending to clear out aerial competition. Zubat, however, turned towards Carnivine and zoomed at him with Wing Attack. Carnivine noticed this and turned towards the Zubat with his gaping maw open and teeth glowing white.

Seviper lashed out with Poison Tail at Mime Jr., who, blatantly disregarding the laws of biology, used Mimic and returned the Poison Tail. Shroomish shook some Poisonpowder into the air and jumped into it, poisoning himself and activating his Poison Heal.

Horsea dashed off from where she had started from in about a dozen different directions, having used Double Team. This was closely followed up with Agility, allowing Horsea to flash around the battlefield multiple times at dizzying speeds.

Gyarados turned towards Wobbuffet and charged down on him with Bite. Wobbuffet simply stood in place and waited.

The Ancientpower missed Zubat due to her flying out of the way, so the rocks flew over the battlefield, grazing Gyarados but not really hitting anything else.

Zubat got close to Carnivine's open mouth and veered off to the side, evidently intending to attack from the side. Carnivine took advantage of this and shot a Vine Whip out at her, catching the Bat Pokemon and pulling her into his mouth.

Seviper and Mime Jr. collided with their Poison Tails, and both of them were even for the slightest amount of a second it took for a Horsea to blast a Dragonbreath at Seviper, knocking him backwards.

Shroomish shot rapid-fire Leech Seeds at anyone he could locate in the battlefield, hoping that at least one would hit. They landed on Seviper, who was actually blown in the direction of the Seed, Yanmega, Wobbuffet, and Gyarados. Horsea managed to use her agility to avoid it and Carnivine, while holding Zubat, wasn't even targeted due to being blocked from sight by Gyarados. The seeds spread vines and leaves over their victims and proceeded to suck life energy from them.

Horsea was largely ignored by the other Pokemon due to the fact that they were otherwise occupied, and that trying to track any of the copies would've given them a headache. So Horsea took this chance to shoot a few attacks at other fighters as she passed by. She shot an Aurora Beam at Shroomish just after the Mushroom Pokemon had finished his Leech Seed barrage, knocking him to the side. She continued the beam to snap aim to Yanmega, disrupting her flight as she was about to send a Sonicboom at Carnivine and Zubat. She moved on from Yanmega to focus the beam on Carnivine and Zubat. Carnivine held his ground in front of the Beam for the short amount of time it took to wave Zubat into the path of the blast.

Meanwhile, Gyarados had collided with Wobbuffet and tossed him into the air. Wobbuffet did the first thing he had done all battle and used Counter, sending a quarter-sphere of orange translucent energy back at Gyarados, who was hit by the blast and shoved back to slam into Horsea by pure chance and large body size.

This also had the affect of stopping the Aurora Beam and allowing Zubat to recover and bite Carnivine's leaf-hand, releasing the Bat Pokemon and allowing her to continue with a Wing Attack.

Seviper had just finished recovering and was seeking to finish his bout with Mime Jr.. To his surprise, Mime Jr. was already in front of Seviper and was using Tickle on him.

Shroomish got up from the Aurora Beam and looked towards the nearest Pokemon, which just so happened to be the Gyarados who had not gotten up as of yet, and used Mega Drain on it. As the green orbs of energy flowed from said Atrocious Pokemon, the Pokemon in question floated back into the air and shot a whirlwind of Twister at Shroomish, pushing him backwards and stopping the Mega Drain. Horsea took the moment of freedom to set back up the Double Team and Agility before setting out again.

As Zubat continued to push Carnivine back with her Wing Attacks, an AncientPower from Yanmega hit Zubat from the back and knocked the Bat Pokemon out. Suime picked up Zubat's Pokeball and shot the recall beam through the transparent substance to get Zubat out of the battlefield.

Horsea shot a Dragonbreath at Yanmega as she passed by, distracting her while Carnivine shot a Bullet Seed to further knock Yanmega out of the air. Horsea also turned towards Mime Jr. and Seviper and sent a small burst of Bubblebeam to them. The stream of bubbles sniped Mime Jr. off of Seviper, and the thoroughly upset Fang Snake Pokemon sprang at Mime Jr. with a Bite attack. The attack landed, and Mime Jr. was knocked unconscious from it. Suime took Mime Jr.'s Pokeball and called her back, removing her from the fight.

Carnivine floated out of the way quickly as a SonicBoom from Yanmega landed right where he was standing a moment ago. Carnivine floated up towards Yanmega and struck with a Bite before she could react, but Yanmega's wings then turned to steel and lashed out at Carnivine. The Bug Catcher Pokemon held his ground… er… air… in spite of the attacks, and continued to clamp down hard with Bite.

Seviper looked towards the Gyarados and Shroomish. Gyarados was a little worn out by now, thanks to the Counter and Mega Drain, but, despite receiving an attack right at that moment, he seemed to not being feeling damage at all. Red electricity crackled over Seviper's body and he remembered that he was being hurt by Leech Seed, and that Shroomish was probably getting a considerable amount of health in return from all the combatants being drained. Seviper reasoned that if this battle were to go on much longer, Shroomish would automatically gain the upper hand.

Plus, Seviper was itching to actually land a Poison Tail for once, and Shroomish wasn't in a position to dodge or counter.

Seviper slithered towards the Mushroom Pokemon, tail glowing purple as he charged up Poison Tail. Unfortunately for him, however, Horsea chose that moment to launch a Bubblebeam at Seviper, breaking his concentration and knocking him to the side. Seviper hissed, after he was finished with Shroomish, that Horsea was next to go.

Seviper continued his path towards Shroomish, wary of the blurs that are the many copies of Horsea, and, once he got close enough, he struck Shroomish at lightening speed with Poison Tail, sending him flying out of the path of the Twister. Gyarados stopped her attack and started using Water Gun on Seviper.

Meanwhile, Wobbuffet stood there, ignored by the battlers. "Wobbuffet!" he called.

By now, the Steel Wings from Yanmega were taking their toll on Carnivine. He had already also taken large amounts of damage from Horsea's Aurora Beam and Zubat's Wing Attack, and, slowly, inexorably, Carnivine found his grip slipping. As the Bug Catcher Pokemon tried his hardest to reclaim his grip on Yanmega, another Aurora Beam from Horsea hit Carnivine directly in the lower jaw. The damage was finally too much for Carnivine to take and he fell to the ground, swirls for eyes. Suime picked up his Pokeball and recalled him.

Shroomish stood up from the attack, cringed a little due to his injuries, and spotted Seviper getting hit by Gyarados' Water Gun. Shroomish charged forwards with a Headbutt and slammed back into Seviper. This, while doing damage to Seviper, had the unfortunate side affect of Shroomish being on the receiving end of the Water Gun. If Gyarados had shoulders, she would've shrugged.

Horsea zipped around the room some more, and shot a Dragonbreath at Wobbuffet, who was just standing there. Wobbuffet took the attack, and then, glowing white and reflective, used Mirror Coat and sent a blue-white quarter sphere at Horsea, who, naturally, was on the other side of the battlefield by then. The attack instead hit Seviper, who had just gotten up from the Headbutt. Seviper was carried by the blast a good distance away, and when he landed he was unconscious. Suime called him back too.

Yanmega swooped down behind Gyarados and sent an Ancientpower at the back of her head. The attack landed, and the Atrocious Pokemon was sent careening towards the ground. Shroomish noticed that if he didn't do anything he would be squished by a foe _much_ larger than him, so he quickly stepped to the side just enough to avoid the falling Pokemon.

Once Gyarados had landed, Shroomish took the opportunity to use Mega Drain on it again. As the green orbs of life-energy flowed from Gyarados to Shroomish, Horsea jumped in the path of them and absorbed the orbs before they got to Shroomish. Horsea then shot an Aurora Beam at Shroomish for good measure.

Gyarados got up gain, floating into the air. Then, the leaves of Leech Seed crackled with their red electricity again, and Gyarados fell to the ground, unconscious.

_I was wondering when she would finally give out,_ Suime thought to herself as she recalled Gyarados. _ She's much frailer than she looks._

Yanmega turned her attention to Wobbuffet, deciding Horsea and Shroomish would deal with each other for a while. Yanmega zipped towards Wobbuffet and struck with Steel Wing, tipping but not knocking over the Patient Pokemon. Eventually, Wobbuffet tipped back to a standing position, but further inspection revealed him to be passed out as he stood. Suime recalled him too.

Shroomish was using the considerable speed he had developed during his training to try and keep pace with each of the Horsea clones. He wasn't nearly fast enough to match them for speed but he was fast enough to keep within range of them to pull off a Mega Drain, making the clones vanish one by one. Every so often Horsea would fire an Aurora Beam at Shroomish, which the Mushroom Pokemon would sometimes dodge, but more often be hit by it. Either way, this allowed Shroomish to locate the real Horsea and track her for a little while until he got close enough to Mega Drain her, recovering some of the health damage from the Aurora Beams. Unfortunately, after this happened Horsea would use Double Team again to replenish the clones and make Shroomish lose track of the real Horsea, starting the process over again.

And during this whole time Yanmega floated dumbly in the air as she got dizzy trying to even keep track of what was happening on the floor. After a little bit she decided to start throwing attacks around at random, on the off chance that she would actually hit something. Soon enough Horsea directed an Aurora Beam at her and she was shot out of the sky, injuries finally overcoming her.

With Shroomish and Horsea the only two left in the Battle Royale, and the strategies they had been using getting tedious, they decided to start taking a risk or two. Horsea got right up next to Shroomish for her Aurora Beams, increasing the probability of getting hit with a Mega Drain but also guaranteeing a hit with Aurora Beam. Shroomish was taking less of a risk and started spraying Stun Spore behind him. Due to the fact that he was already poisoned (and reaping positive benefits, no less), he didn't have to worry about being paralysed himself, but it obscured vision a little and would probably make Horsea less predictable.

The battle continued for a solid minute more before one of Shroomish's Mega Drains got a critical hit on Horsea, who was in no way restoring health, and she fell unconscious. Suime called both of the Pokemon back to their Pokeballs, and vented the room to get rid of the Stun Spores. After that was done she went back into the room and called all of the Pokemon back out.

"Good job, all of you," She said. "To those who didn't stick it through until the end, Shroomish won the Battle Royale, largely due to his regeneration through use of Leech Seed and Mega Drain, allowing him to withstand copious amounts of damage without fainting. However, a real fight may not last long enough for those strategies to take full effect. On the other hand, Horsea, the one who achieved second place, was using a strategy that allowed her to deal damage to almost all of the combatants without fear of being targeted herself. This strategy is much more effective in fights that start and end in moments. One thing all of you need to work on is your sense of observation. A lot of damage you all took was because of something happening in another corner of the room that you didn't pay attention to, or Horsea shooting an attack at you."

The collected assortment of Pokemon nodded, most of them thinking about what they did wrong in battle, one feeling proud of himself for winning, and Wobbuffet and Mime Jr. not thinking about anything at all.

* * *

Looking back, this chapter spends about an equal time in all of the character settings I've set up. I think that if the Illusion League were a major arc in the story that this could qualify as an epilogue for it, but it really was just things progressing along in preparation for the trio's next big mission.

I think I might have made Shroomish too overpowered. He knows some good moves, is fast enough to avoid enemies, and can pull off a decent strategy in a situation where most Pokemon rely on regular attacks. He was definitely the strongest player in the Jesse/Nicole fight and now he's gone and won here too. I better do something about this before he simply takes over the story- TUNE IN NEXT TIME FOR THE ADVENTURES OF SHROOMISH AND SOME OTHER PEOPLE WHO AREN'T IMPORTANT! *Whacks Shroomish over the head with a stick*

I must say that while I _had_ a plan for the plot of the story, the ideas that came to me while writing the story have changed things to the point where such a plotline wouldn't work. As it is right now, I have only a general idea as to where the plot's going to go, and most of what happens during the story right now is whatever I come up with as I write it.


	10. Breakout

Team Rocket Triumphs, Chapter 10: Breakout

* * *

Disclaimer: I don't own anything from this fanfic. There is original content but I'm not getting money for this anyways so why bother saying I own it?

* * *

It was the day of the mission, everything had been planned out and the materials needed for the mission had been laid out for the agents. Right now, Jesse, James, and Meowth were heading into the room where this equipment was kept. They were dreading this inevitable moment with a resigned defiance.

As they walked into the room, they quickly took note of the room's other residents. Well, they completely ignored two of the people, but they noticed the other two.

And it seemed that those two noticed the trio as well. "So if it isn't Jesse and James," Cassidy sneered. "I figured you would chicken out on the mission."

"Hoping, actually," Butch, Cassidy's partner, added. "We would still be able to pull off the mission without you, and that way we wouldn't have to put up with your presence."

"Pleasure to meet you too," Jesse replied, venom in her voice. "And I'll have you know that we have a very important role in this mission."

"Oh please," Cassidy laughed. "All you do is barge in like the idiots you are and get yourself beat up until we break Shapu and Buki out. A Mankey could pull off the same job with twice the effectiveness!"

"And besides, we're clearly far higher ranking than you two," Butch said. "See these?" Butch pointed to the table, on which laid two Snag Devices. "We got these babies personally fitted for us so we can steal Pokemon with ease. Not only that, but we're the new model's field testers as a personal show of trust from Dr. Nanna himself."

Indeed, the Snag Machines on the table were different from the ones initially developed. For one, they were white instead of black, although the red lines remained the same. Secondly, there was a large flat spike sticking out vertically from the shoulder segment, perpendicular to where the head would be, also white with red around the edge. There was a semi-spherical bulge in front of the shoulder, about the size of a shrunken Pokeball.

A radio piece in Butch's ear started up as the doctor in question shouted so loud the trio could hear it: "How many times do I have to say: It's Doctor Namba!"

Completely disregarding the trio's rival's leader's outburst, Jesse and James simultaneously turned to show off their left arms, while James spoke up: "So you have the new models too? I'm surprised that they actually let you touch them." Butch and Cassidy saw, to their astonishment, that Jesse and James were wearing the new Snag Machines the other set of agents were referring to.

Butch was rendered speechless, so Cassidy spoke for him: "Wait a minute, you've got those too?"

James grinned. "Not only did I get these for field testing, I _developed_ the new model."

Butch and Cassidy's jaws dropped. Even Jesse and Meowth looked a little surprised.

"You never told us that you made those!" Meowth said.

"Yeah, you just said you managed to get a hold of them for field testing purposes," Jesse accused.

"Well, I guess I just wanted to maintain the surprise," James said sheepishly. "I just made a few adjustments to it to make it better, that's all."

"The new Snag Machines are _brilliant!_" another voice chimed in. "I just love the way you doubled up the infusion of Snag Energy processes to make rapid-fire shots possible. And the way you made a wireless connection to the PC system to retrieve and remotely send back Pokeballs was a stroke of genius!"

All five agents turned towards the new voice. The speaker was another agent, presumably one of the third set of agents on the mission. She had shoulder length indigo hair, and her eyes were sparkling, although that was likely due to her enthusiasm about the Snag Machine.

"How did we not notice them?" Jesse wondered aloud.

"More importantly, how did they not notice us until now?" Cassidy indignantly asked. "We've had _our_ Snag Machines displayed on our equipment table since we came in here, and they just didn't notice?"

"Ellen has always been a bit scatterbrained," Another voice, the second of the duo, said dryly. "As for myself, I really just couldn't care less."

"Oh, sorry," Ellen apologized. "We forgot to introduce ourselves. I'm Ellen and this is Morton. We make up a duo of Team Rocket agents who specialize in combat hacking."

Jesse blinked. "Combat… hacking?"

"What she means," Morton explained, "Is that, unlike other hackers who stay away from the action and operate remotely, we have all the talents and capabilities of field agents to compliment our hacking prowess, allowing us to go to the machines themselves and hack directly while defending or concealing ourselves." He paused for a moment, then added: "Well, Ellen isn't exactly good at concealing herself when she gets enthusiastic, but she can hold her own in a fight."

"We've been assigned to the mission so we can make Shapu and Buki's escape flawless," Ellen said. "We'll be making sure the security cameras don't spot anything and that the records show Shapu and Buki being transferred to another facility, with a large and overly complex trail of documents and paperwork to prevent anyone from even thinking about trying to dig deeper."

"We're Jesse, James, and Meowth, a trio of Team Rocket agents," James said. "Our job is to distract the prison guards with a loud and violent entrance and battle to give you guys time."

Cassidy snorted. "So typical of you two to get a job that involves being beaten and humiliated. It's all you're good at, after all."

A cross of veins bulged on Jesse's forehead. "I'll have you know that our part in this mission is vital to its success! You'd all be lost without us!"

"Yes, we're forever grateful to you being human punching bags," Cassidy said, her voice dripping with sarcasm.

Butch, not really caring for Cassidy's rivalry with Jesse, instead turned towards Ellen and Morton. "We're Butch and Cassidy, a duo of Team Rocket agents. Our job is the actual sneaking in and freeing Shapu and Buki."

"Sounds cool!" Ellen said. "How long until we have to leave, by the way?"

"By my count, about five minutes," Morton said, "Give or take ten."

Hearing this snapped the bickering agents toward the task at hand, namely preparing for the mission.

* * *

They weren't specifically late, per say. When they got to the area of the helicopter, they were informed they were, in fact, behind deadline. But they were also informed that, since the rivalry of the two teams and the oddity of a member of the third was known to the supervisors, they had intentionally set the deadline a short while ahead of their real schedule.

They got into the helicopter and flew to Fuchsia city with few complaints, and landed a good deal away from the prison.

"_Alright, troops,"_ Mal said over their intercom. _"You all know what to do. I'll keep you notified on the situation if anything changes."_

"I still don't see why we have to take orders from _your_ field instructor," Butch grumbled in the direction of the trio.

"_I've told you already,"_ Mal sighed. _"With so many missions going on at once now, I was the only one available for the task. Besides, it's not like either of your groups have one of their own, do they?"_

"Whatever," Butch said.

The three groups split up, wandering out casually, as if they were touring the town. The trio of Jesse, James, and Meowth, as well as the duo of Butch and Cassidy went in seemingly random directions, while really trying to get as far away from each other as possible. Ellen and Morton, on the other hand, went more or less directly towards the Fuchsia City Prison.

When they got there, they started digging in the ground at a specific point. After a minute, they uncovered a set of wires leading towards the prison. A little hardware handiwork later, and they had connected their laptop up to the wire.

"Manual access to system achieved," Morton said over the intercom. "We're about to start getting the password."

A few minutes later, Ellen cheered in triumph, and Morton frantically covered her mouth. "Password acquisition is a success," Morton said.

"_Alright,"_ Mal replied. _"Jesse, James, and Meowth, prepare to start in five minutes. Butch and Cassidy, six minutes."_

On the trio's end, the three agents nodded and turned their path towards the jail.

* * *

Precisely five minutes later, the Officer Jenny working at the prison was slightly confused at what her computer was telling her.

"Security access denied?" She said to herself. "But I have the highest rank here."

She entered her password again, hoping for different results.

This time a new message displayed.

"Invalid password?" Jenny repeated incredulously. "One more failure will result in a notification to the authorities? I _am_ the authorities!"

"Something wrong?" One of Jenny's coworkers asked.

"The computer system won't let me in." Jenny said.

"Have you tried a screwdriver?" The officer chuckled. "I hear it works wonders on things like screws."

Jenny glared at her co-worker. "I mean the system won't accept my password."

"I was just pulling your leg," The officer said, smiling. "Now, let's see if my password works-"

Just as the officer was about to type his password into the machine, alarm bells blared through the facility. The door to the room opened and a coughing officer stumbled in, along with a decent amount of black smoke.

"We're under attack!" He reported.

* * *

Thirty seconds ago:

"Are you ready for this?" James asked nervously as they stood at the side of the jail, positioned to avoid sight from windows. All of their Pokemon were already released, and were waiting behind them.

"We're gonna have to be," Meowth replied. "Because once we go in there it's win or…"

The whole team shuddered at what would happen to them if they were captured.

"I-in that case," Jesse said, regaining her composure. "All we have to do is win. That should be simple enough."

"Especially with the element of surprise on our side," James added.

A moderately loud beep came from James' watch, signifying that they had to go launch the attack now.

In a flurry of motion, the entire group, Pokemon included, ran around the corner of the building and reached the front door to the jail. The group parted for a moment as Gyarados used Tackle to smash the door in and enter the building.

There was barely enough room for Gyarados to fit, so she compensated by smashing a window with her tail and snaking it outside.

Meanwhile, Seviper went in directly behind the not-dragon Pokemon and used Haze while the officers in the room were still registering what had just happened. Still, they managed to get to their Pokeballs, and they released what would imminently become the trio's competition.

The Pokemon consisted of a Pidgeotto, a Growlithe, and a Magnemite. The haze, however, had bought the trio enough time in the confusion to get their own Pokemon, _all_ of them, stationed around the room.

One of the officers stumbled away from the Haze's reach and hit the alarm button on the wall. He then opened the door to the room where Officer Jenny and her co-worker were and yelled to them that they were under attack.

"Pidgeotto, use Gust to remove the Haze!" The officer who owned the Pidgeotto said. The bird Pokemon complied and soon enough the battlefield was clear.

It didn't look good for the defenders. They were grouped together at one wall while the trio's Pokemon covered the rest of the room so they would have to fight on all sides. It would be a few moments, however, before the two other officers arrive in the room, along with the officer who went to go find them.

Knowing that they didn't have long before reinforcements, the trio resolved to deal with as many of them as possible before that happens. "Open fire!" Jesse and James simultaneously declared.

Showers of attacks of all different types and ranges hit the defending Pokemon, the suddenness and ferocity rendering them unable to defend themselves adequately. The Pidgeotto reacted fast enough to fly above most of the shots, but a targeted Thunderbolt from Meowth still landed a direct hit.

Without giving their opponents any time to catch their breath, Jesse and James loaded their Snag Machines and fired at the Growlithe and Magnemite, who were reeling and hurt from the strikes. The balls connected and the two Pokemon were sucked in. Once they clicked shut they vanished into thin air, transported remotely through the PC system to Team Rocket HQ.

At this point, the battlefield had cleared enough to note that the three newer arrivals had reached for their own Pokemon as well. Except this time they were pulling out all the stops. Officer Jenny called out no less than three Growlithe, and the other officer released a Poliwhirl and a Machop. The officer who went to get the two in the first place called out a Voltorb and a Tangela.

"Looks like things are finally starting to get interesting," Jesse said, smirking.

"Agreed. Everyone, strike two," James said.

All of the assembled Pokemon belonging to the trio fired off their attacks again, this time against the new enemies.

New enemies who were faring surprisingly well, in fact. They seemed to have realized the attack was coming quickly enough to prepare their own, and within seconds the jail was a mass of projectile attacks and Pokmon fighting each other no matter where you turned.

Quite simply, it was madness.

Jesse and James quickly dodged their way through attacks to get to the relatively safest part of the room (which even then wasn't all that safe). From there they kept an eye on the battle, waiting for an opportunity to Snag something.

A Growlithe fell. She had been hit by a Bubblebeam too many from Horsea, and had collapsed on the floor. James nodded at Jesse who threw her already-prepared Snag Ball at the Growlithe. Weakened such from the fight, she was unable to make the slightest effort to break free, and the Ball clicked. It soon, like before, vanished from sight.

Out of the corner of his eye, James saw Carnivine go down. It had been a combined effort from a portion of the police Pokemon, but Carnivine had been knocked unconscious from the severity of the blast. He would have recalled him, but was distracted from the effort due to being forced to dodge a haywire attack of the Voltorb.

One by one, the Pokemon fell. With there being simply no order left in the room to give commands, the Pokemon, criminal and police alike, were operating on their own initiative and instincts. The majority of the police Pokemon were knocked off (there was a Tangela, Poliwhirl, and a Growlithe still fighting), but similar casualties were incurred on the criminal side, leaving Horsea, Zubat, Seviper, and Meowth still active.

Of the police Pokemon that had fainted, nearly all of them had been caught in Snag Balls, but one of the Growlithe had been recalled by Officer Jenny before it had been Snagged, to the trio's frustration. The trio had also recalled their fainted Pokemon, but with a bit lower priority since their Pokemon weren't in any danger of getting Snagged like the police Pokemon.

Somewhere along the line, another Officer had shown up, no doubt the one in charge of maintaining watch over the prisoners. He had been kept out of the battle due to the attacks flying every which way, but had now managed to bring out his only Pokemon, a Ponyta.

At one arbitrary moment, as if the decision had been made ahead of time, everyone stopped attacking and retreated to their respective 'side' of the room.

"I don't know who you criminals are," Jenny said in an attempt to regain some control over the situation. "But you are under arrest for…" her mind blanked out for a second, trying to find the legal terms for just what they had done. "For attacking this place!" She finished somewhat lamely.

"Well excuse me, miss cop," Jesse sneered. "But you don't seem to be calling the shots around here."

"You're outnumbered!" Jenny shouted.

"I count four Pokemon on each side." James reasoned.

"Huh?" Jenny obviously hadn't been keeping that good track of her surroundings. "Either way, surrender now and we won't have to hurt you."

"I think I prefer the path of 'we beat you up and steal your Pokemon'," Jesse said. "I also think you don't have much of a say in the matter. Everyone focus your attacks on Ponyta!"

A Thunderbolt and a Bubblebeam shot towards the Ponyta, courtesy of Meowth and Horsea, and Seviper and Zubat weaved their way through the beams at similar speeds as the projectile attacks, tail and wings aglow respectively.

Ponyta was obviously not expecting such… ferocity from the opposition, and directed solely at her, no less. She tried to dodge the attacks, but Seviper and Zubat corrected for the change of destination and she simply didn't dodge the beams well enough. Ponyta was struck by the entirety of the remaining power of the trio's arsenal, and she fell unconscious from it.

"Snag Ball!" James called out as he shot the Snag Ball at Ponyta. The pony was sucked just immediately before the officer who owned her shot a recall laser at her. Needless to say, the laser didn't work, and the Snag Ball did its job. The officer made a grab for the ball, but it vanished in his hands, teleported to HQ.

And it was then that the battle continued in earnest.

"Seviper, Poison Tail!"

Seviper grinned in a way that just looked evil and lunged forwards towards Tangela, tail glowing purple.

"Tangela, Protect!" The Tangela's trainer called frantically.

A blue translucent quarter-sphere appeared in front of Tangela, defending it from the Poison Tail. Seviper, on the other hand, flawlessly and smoothly shifted targets to Poliwhirl. Before the Pokemon's trainer could call out an order the attack struck and sent Poliwhirl flying into the wall.

"You won't get away with this!" Jenny declared. "Growlithe, Flamethrower!"

Growlithe nodded and shot a stream of fire out of his mouth towards Seviper.

"Seviper, get out of there!" Jesse called. Simultaniously, James said: "Horsea, use Bubblebeam!"

Seviper slithered away from the police side of the room and Horsea quickly sped over to intercept the Flamethrower in the blink of an eye. Horsea, once in position, spewed a plethora of bubbles at the oncoming fire-beam. The two attacks collided and a thick steam covered the room. Nevertheless, neither attack gave an inch.

Seeing as the beams were making a horizontal line separating the two teams, neither side was particularly inclined to use other Pokemon to attack, seeing as it would be quite the risky thing. Plus, both sides were calculating what to do when the stalemate ended.

If one were watching closely enough, they might've seen a few jagged crystals of nigh transparent ice glimmer in the air just before Horsea's Bubblebeam was overpowered by the Flamethrower. The fire attack continued inexorably towards Horsea until it hit her.

Seeing the turn of the tide, the two other officers ordered the Tangela and Poliwhirl to attack Horsea as well.

"Haze!" Jesse called. Seviper complied and spread a cloud of smoke across their side of the room, being careful to obscure their side while not touching the flames.

"Zubat, Meowth," James whispered. "I think it's time to try out your combo."

The two Pokemon nodded in agreement, and Meowth jumped on top of Zubat, who flew up to the top of the smoke cloud. The plan was for Zubat to use Wing Attack to get in close from above, and just before she hit Meowth would use Faint Attack to knock the target from behind into the Wing Attack, doing even more damage.

As the two of them started the targeted descent, they were rudely interrupted by an assailant who jumped through a broken window and shot an Ice Shard directly at Zubat's wings. Zubat dodged, but the attack was broken up and the descent was halted.

A Weavile was standing in the middle of the battlefield like he was right at home. With a smirk, he used Agility to start running in the direction of the interrupted attackers, leaving afterimages in his wake. With the added speed to his already no-doubt-impressive jumping abilities, Weavile was easily able to reach the same altitude as Zubat and Meowth. While up there, the feathers that served as Weavile's tail shone metallic and he twisted his body to prepare to strike. In response, Meowth started a Fire Punch and Zubat shot a Supersonic at Weavile.

Weavile immediately used Shadow Claw with a claw to swipe away the Supersonic to nothingness. He then swung his tail feathers at, not Meowth, but again the wings of Zubat. Meowth intercepted the attack, however, and the Fire Punch collided against the Iron Tail. The match of strength would have been equal, if it were not for the fact that Meowth had a flying Zubat to stand on and use as support, while Weavile only had his own inertia, which quickly ran out. Despite any strength Weavile might have been able to exert, he was flung away by the Fire Punch regardless.

Falling through the air with nothing to propel himself off of, Weavile was all but useless in this condition in terms of close range attacks. He did, however, shoot off an Ice Shard at Zubat and Meowth. Meowth responded by jumping off of Zubat, propelling himself into the air and Zubat down out of harm's way. Meowth then inexplicably stopped flat in midair as he shot a Thunderbolt at Weavile. The attack connected and Weavile screamed in pain, still falling towards the ground at a rapid rate.

Meanwhile, on the ground Jesse and James were doing the best they could with what they had left. Which is to say, what they could do with a Seviper and a Horsea that was taking continuous attacks.

"Seviper, Bite Growlithe!" Seviper shot forwards towards the loyal police dog and, teeth leaving white trails, Bit into him furiously. The impact stopped the Flamethrower dead in its tracks, and the whole thing petered out.

But Horsea wasn't out of hot water yet. She was still being assaulted by Poliwhirl and Tangela, albeit they weren't as much of a problem, seeing as they were using attacks that did more damage than immobilize. Still, Horsea was in bad shape and only getting worse. Horsea did manage to use the lack of Flamethrower to escape from the metaphorical grasp of the other Pokemon and retreat to James' side.

"Horsea, you've been very good," James reassured. "Now initiate Stratagem Blur!"

Horsea dashed off in an Agility, apparently relieved to be battling with styles she was comfortable with, and soon split off into about a dozen clones, all indistinguishable from each other unless you concentrated.

On the other side of the room, Growlithe was shaking his head vigorously, trying to knock Seviper off. All that was accomplishing was swinging Seviper's body around like a flail, a trait Seviper was all to happy to take advantage of by charging up a Poison Tail and using the momentum to strike at Poliwhirl and Tangela whenever he got close enough to them. The two police Pokemon in question were doing their best to knock Seviper off of Growlithe with their own attacks, but with the erratic movements of Growlithe's shaking, they weren't having much success. Their situation only worsened when Horsea entered the fray, this time predator instead of prey, and shooting projectile attacks from every direction conceivable on a 2D grid.

Weavile landed on the ground with a solid _thud_, as Mewoth's Thunderbolt faded out and he started falling. Meowth used this to his advantage by charging a Fire Punch and steering himself on a collision course with the felled Weavile. Zubat was also doing her part by flying straight downwards alongside Meowth with a Wing Attack.

Weavile opened his eyes just in time to see the two attackers, and promptly vanished into a dark shadow. Unable to stop their momentum, the two Pokemon were helpless as Weavile appeared above them and lashed out with a Faint Attack. Meowth, noticing the technique just in time, managed to twist himself to strike at the Weavile, hoping to block. Even though he wasn't fast enough to block, he managed to deliver a hit of his own. Zubat, sadly, took the hit badly enough to fall limp to the ground, unconscious.

Weavile flew sideways from the force of the Fire Punch, and Meowth was falling towards the ground even faster now. There was a literal split second to do something to stop the fall. Sadly, not only was there no option to use, but no time to do it in. Meowth could only start bracing himself before he collided at high speeds. From across the room, James took his attention off of the other brawl for a second to recall Zubat.

Both Weavile and Meowth struggled to their feet, strength both almost giving out from exertion and pain. Both of them stared down at each other, watching for a strategic advantage, knowing that the smallest slip-up could mean defeat at this point. As if reacting off of an unseen cue, both of them immediately charged up an attack at an arbitrary moment. Weavile fired off an Ice Shard at Meowth, who launched his own Thunderbolt. Instead of colliding, the shards of ice ploughed their way through the Thunderbolt, which ran through the Ice Shard as if it wasn't there in the first place. It looked as if both attacks were going to hit the other opponent, but at the last moment Weavile jumped out of the way, and followed up by fleeing somewhat sluggishly through a window. Meowth, on the other hand, took the full force of the Ice Shard, and, with a blossom of pain, blacked out.

Over on the other side of the room, Seviper was finally knocked off by the Poliwhirl's Water Gun, but not before Tangela was taken out by a dual Poison Tail/Aurora Beam combo, and Snagged soon afterwards. Growlithe also looked as if he had taken a fair bit of damage. Down to what both sides knew as the final moments of the fight, the tension had grown to the point where it was almost tangible.

"Poison Tail on Growlithe!" Jesse called. James followed up by telling Horsea to Bubblebeam the same Growlithe. The twin attacks caught Growlithe unable to dodge both, and, in the slight moment of indecision, his time ran up as both attacks hit their mark. Growlithe fell over on his side, exhausted and unconscious. He was promptly Snagged, leaving the only opponent Poliwhirl.

However, the odds were not as slanted as you might think. Horsea was all but fainted already, and Seviper had taken a good hit or two, while on the other hand Poliwhirl had taken nearly no damage during the fight, focusing on dodging and defensive moves above offence.

Recognizing trying to identify Horsea to be time and effort wasted, he instead turned his attention to Seviper, who was at that precise moment launching a Poison Tail at him. Poliwhirl reacted by using Wake-Up Slap on Seviper's head, knocking him off course. The tail, however, was not limited by such inertia, and simply swung around to hit him anyways. Horsea also contributed by sending a fierce Dragonbreath at Poliwhirl.

With a glint in his eye, Poliwhirl ignored the pain and jumped up, keeping close track of which Horsea had hit him. Once locked on, Poliwhirl shot an Ice Beam at the correct Horsea. Already having taken massive damage, she fell unconscious and all of the clones faded away. James winced, but called her back.

The next minute was an intense duel between the sword of Seviper's Poison Tail and the shield that is Poliwhirl. Thrusts were dodged, swings blocked, and minor blows exchanged between both Pokemon equally.

As both sides of trainers watched the fight, an idea occurred to James. Not saying a word, he levelled his Snag Machine at Poliwhirl, and, taking great caution to not hit Seviper (goodness knows how Jesse would react to that), shot a Snag Ball at Poliwhirl. Poliwhirl was sucked in, but, still at decent health, escaped easily. James grinned nonetheless.

What Poliwhirl certainly didn't expect upon escape was Seviper to be waiting for him, Poison Tail at the ready. With no time to dodge, block, or really do anything, Poliwhirl took the hit and fell over. This time James shot a Snag Ball for real, and this time it clicked.

The officer looked as if he was going to attempt to grab the Snag Ball containing Poliwhirl, but a sharp look from Seviper and a swish of his tail informed them that such a thing would be folly. The Ball vanished anyways before anyone could make a reasonable grab for it.

"I think we win," Jesse said smugly. "Now hand over that Growlithe you recalled."

Jenny growled, but when Seviper's tail started to glow she relented and tossed the Pokeball to Jesse.

"Pleasure doing business with you," Jesse taunted.

"Go die," Jenny spat.

"Well, aren't we defiant," Jesse continued. "Back to business." Jesse smirked evilly. "Where are your handcuffs?"

A few minutes later, the entire staff of the Fuchsia Jail was handcuffed, gagged, and had their feet tied up. They were all in separate cells, which were locked with keys that were hidden in the rubble of the battle. The keys to the handcuffs were also hidden in the rubble, along with some red herring keys, just for the fun of it.

"All clear," Jesse said to Mal.

"Good. The escape went off without a hitch, and Shapu and Buki are now ready for transport back to HQ."

"Is there anything we should do before we leave?" Jesse asked.

"_Did you take their valuables?"_ Mal asked.

Jesse held up a medium sized bag and rattled it. "All found and accounted for. I even took their badges and identification."

"In that case, your next goal is to return to the helicopter for the return trip."

"Duly noted," Jesse said. She switched the communications device off and the trio left the now ruined jail.

* * *

"We finally did it," Jesse stated, somewhat dazed.

"A real, full fledged mission that hasn't blown up in our faces," James continued, equally dazed.

"I can't even remember the last time that happened!" Meowth pitched in.

The trio were back at HQ. They had a few hours to write a report of what had happened during the mission, but right now they were still taking in the fact that they succeeded. Hey, it doesn't happen often.

"I can't believe we won," James said. "And to think that we were so close to losing, what with Seviper being the only one who survived."

"Even I got knocked out!" Meowth exclaimed. "And I've been learning all sorts of new moves and been training real hard."

Jesse smiled. "Yeah, Meowth. You did good."

The three of them then turned towards their computer. It was time to write up a report of their success. They had gotten rusty due to so long without writing a report, good or bad, but the Day Care helped get them back into the swing of it.

They typed up a report, arguing over details and which of them saved the day, things like that. In the end it came off as very objective towards the contributions of the trio, seeing as none of them would let another take more credit. Oh, they made the police officers look like incompetent jerks though, that was one bias they all shared during the mission.

* * *

Later that day, in Mr. Carth's office, the trio had submitted their report. They were also scheduled to have a discussion of what happened with Mr. Carth, to make sure all loose ends were accounted for.

"All in all, I think that this mission was a complete success!" Mr. Carth said proudly after reading the report. "The one thing that worries me is that Weavile. Do you have any idea about what happened with it?"

"Nothing," Jesse shook his head. "He came out of nowhere in the blink of an eye and retreated there just as fast when he was defeated."

"And he was strong too," Meowth testified. "He could've easily turned the tide of the battle and lost it for us if I hadn't taken him out." He glanced down. "And even then that was mostly luck."

"But from the looks of it, you handled the situation quite nicely," Mr. Carth said. "You even got all of their Pokemon to boot."

"Actually, I have a suspicion about that Weavile," James spoke up. "You know how we were hacked when we were stealing from the Day Care, and we had no idea who did it? I think that the Weavile belongs to that person."

"Hm," Mr. Carth thought. "Whoever that person is would have to have a reason to keep messing with you. Every time the three of you pull off a major mission, he's there to add a bit of trouble to the mix."

Meowth nodded. "Yeah, if he hadn't shown up the battle would've been over a lot sooner and easier. The Weavile made it closer to a draw."

"I'll make a note to keep on the look out for things of this nature on future missions," Mr. Carth said. "Who knows, we might get lucky and discover the nature of this mystery threat."

After noting a pause of understanding, Mr. Carth continued, "Due to the fact that we need as many able operatives as possible, you are going to have one more week of training before a test. If you succeed, you will be deemed ready for fieldwork. This previous mission being an exception, of course."

The trio tensed. The last time they had a test to see if they were ready for fieldwork it involved breaking into a heavily secured building's penthouse to steal a red Snorlax. Of course, the whole thing was set up by Giovanni, but there was no doubt that this was going to be a challenging hurdle.

"And… what is this test going to entail?" James asked cautiously.

Mr. Carth grimaced. "Something tough. Something I can assure you you will not enjoy the prospect of trying. Something that puts you in very real danger."

The trio frowned. It was clear that Mr. Carth knew what the test was, but wasn't allowed to tell them. They weren't looking forwards to it though, from what they had heard.

"One thing I'm surprised of," Mr. Carth changed the subject. "Is that none of your Pokemon evolved in the fight. Zubat and Shroomish should've been mere moments from evolving."

James spoke up, "Ah, you see, Shroomish had fainted early on in the fight due to a Growlithe's Flamethrower. He didn't last more than a minute."

"Zubat fared better, and she helped in the fight against Weavile," Meowth said. "She fainted before the fight ended though, that might've done it."

Mr. Carth nodded. "I've heard before that a Pokemon can't evolve when fainted. Don't know why, but that's how it seems to be. Either way, she's still a Zubat for now, but the smallest win should push her over the edge. Same goes for Shroomish as well. I think that I can firmly guarantee they will be evolved before your test. Maybe even Horsea, if we're lucky."

* * *

Agents Jesse and James, Observation Report 4:

It would appear the subjects are being allowed to take on serious missions now. They recently participated in a jailbreak of Top Agents Shapu and Buki, along with two other separate teams. The subjects' job was to take on the police in charge of the jail and distract them by attacking while the other agents did their jobs. Delegation at its finest.

I tried hacking the system of the tech pair, but they were protected by a firewall that would take too long to break through and a Porygon2 sentry. I could've done some things with the pair breaking out the Top Agents, but I decided against it. I only had one Pokemon on the scene, and I assumed that by assigning him to take out Jesse and James I could tip the balance easier.

I was wrong. While the Pokemon I sent in was certainly an added factor that made the battle more difficult, the subjects managed to beat Weavile and the police officers, albeit by a small margin.

The end result is that the agents Shapu and Buki were successfully freed, and the subjects managed to steal the police officers' Pokemon. My Weavile was injured to the brink of unconsciousness and their mission was an overwhelming success. I have reviewed the choices I made with my involvement in this mission and concluded what I must do to stop future success.

Next time, I will no longer hide in the shadows. I will face them directly, and they will fall.

Agent 37, out

Agent 37 took a deep breath. She was quite confident in her battle skills, but the danger of what she had committed herself to was weighing on her a bit. Because after all, what would happen if she really did lose to them?

* * *

Cynthia was flying around the Sinnoh Region on her Garchomp. More specifically, she was flying just above tree level, searching for an aura signal from Lucario.

Cynthia, as a person with minor aura training, had the ability to sense auras with her aura sight, especially from Pokemon like Lucario. They had long since honed the ability to communicate through aura at a limited range, and it was far easier to simply sense one another's aura, as it was more like seeing the brightness of a sight instead of observing intricate colours, resulting in a larger area of affect. However, due to the fact that she was only marginally trained in aura, the range was still quite limited.

So on Cynthia flew. Consistently checking every viable area for signs of Lucario's aura, constantly moving around. She had had a few times when she noticed an aura signal, only to fly down and realize it was coming from a different Lucario. Still, when she sensed the auras she was always filled with hope, and that hope always drained away and then some when the truth became known. Soon enough she was starting to have doubts about whether or not she'd be able to find Lucario. Maybe he was in a different region? That certainly was a possibility. If Lucario was chasing Team Aether then he would almost certainly be able to follow them, maybe even swimming across the oceans in the process. That was a characteristic about Lucario; when he set his mind on an objective, there was just no giving up; ever loyal he was to his trainer's wishes.

Still, there was also the possibility that he was off the region because…

Cynthia shuddered at the thought. Lucario was stronger than those Zoroark by a wide margin; surely he could beat them.

Another thought occurred to the Champion, one that worried her even more. She remembered that she couldn't sense Lucario when he was in his Pokeball. She had once heard about a criminal organization in some desert region that developed technology to steal Pokemon that were already owned. Horror crept into Cynthia's face as she thought of the possibility that Lucario might've been - what was that term again? - Snagged, right.

Or worse, Lucario could be Snagged _and_ in another region.

Cynthia shook her head. Lucario was just too strong to be beaten like that. And besides, Cynthia was certain of Lucario's ability to escape from a Pokeball without permission if he needed to.

This new resolve in mind, Cynthia continued her search across Sinnoh. Next stop was Stark Mountain, and from there to Snowpoint City.

* * *

Lucario was deeply asleep. He didn't know how long he was that way, his internal clock was that messed up, but he suddenly knew he was now lucid dreaming. He could wake up at any time, but decided it was better to review what had happened before doing so.

He thought about what he most recently remembered. Images appeared before him, thoughts about being at the Sinnoh League, defeating a Zoroark who was torturing Cynthia, running through the hallways of the League, and then…

Lucario winced, and the dream world constructed around him warped slightly as he remembered the sheer amount of pain involved in those illusions. Lucario swore to himself that he would work on a countermeasure to that. He had always considered meditation to remove the feeling of pain counter intuitive, as the level of pain told you how long you could keep fighting safely, but now he was reconsidering.

His last memories were quite fuzzy. He, ever so slightly, recalled a thunk on his head that he idly noted was incongruous with the styles of the pain inflicted before. He focused on that speck of a memory, and eventually determined more about what it was. It was round, not too big or it would've hit more of his head. It was metallic, and only of a certain weight…

Lucario swore under his breath. The closest match to something like that was a Pokeball, and he had been in no shape to defend himself. Even so, he was already captured by Cynthia, so there could be no way he had been caught. At least, that's what his mind told him. His gut instinct spoke otherwise.

He needed to know for sure, and so he decided to check. He gave an exertion of will, and suddenly he snapped out of his sleep.

He looked around, same old Pokeball surroundings. That in and of itself didn't confirm anything, as he could've been recalled by Cynthia at some point. He felt around the surroundings with his Aura Sight, and faltered, his heart falling.

This Pokeball wasn't Cynthia's.

Back in his Pokeball, Cynthia's presence permeated the place, not really noticeable by the five senses but all too obvious to an aura practitioner. This place, on the other hand, not only had a lack of Cynthia's presence, but also emanated _wrongness_. It was as if the entire Pokeball was engineered and used with evil in mind, but then again, it probably was, considering how it had apparently caught him regardless of prior ownership.

He tested the border between the Pokeball and the outside world. Good, it wasn't that much stronger than Cynthia's. He could break out of here with ease. But he didn't want to appear out of it in the middle of something dangerous unawares, so he decided to peek outside.

Looking outside of your Pokeball was something all Pokemon could do if they wanted to; it was part of the design. At it seemed this evil Pokeball did nothing to change that. He extended his normal sight to outside of the Pokeball.

Black.

Black and dark.

Lucario stopped. It would appear that his Pokeball was someplace where there wasn't any light. Probably a storage room of some sort, or at least where no one else was. He tried hearing next.

Silence.

This time he was sure there was no one around. He wanted to check with his Aura Sight, but knew that was a lost cause; however the Pokeball worked it didn't let Aura pass through the barrier. And it would also seem that the designers didn't anticipate Aura Pokemon wanting to Aura Sight into the real world.

It would seem he just had to hope his normal senses were giving proper readings. He prepared a force of will, and slammed it against the metaphorical barrier of his new prison.

* * *

Ash and co. had long since arrived in Kanto. They'd paid Nauta for the ferry ride and set on their way. Due to the fact that they didn't have a giant dragon to befriend this time they worked their way on foot. Needless to say, the travel was taking a long time.

"The way I see it," Ash had said when they first arrived. "If we had to fight Team Rocket in Viridian City to get the Earth Badge, their HQ must be close to that."

"Unless it isn't," Brock had said.

"Well, even then, it has to be a good place to start," Ash had reasoned.

"Unless they've wiped their tracks," Dawn had offered.

Ash had growled. "Well does anyone have any better ideas?"

"Where a criminal organization would station itself…" Angie had wondered. "It'd either be a big corporate building or some out of the way base in a place no one goes."

"Says who?" Ash had demanded, obviously not wanting to back down from his stated option.

"Says me!" Angie had replied, now affirming her own opinions on the matter.

"Alright, alright," Dawn had said, separating the two. "Angie, if it's in an isolated place where no one goes, what chance do we have of finding it?"

Angie's shoulders had sagged. "I hadn't thought of that…"

"Futhermore," Brock had added. "If they really are at a place like Silph co. then there'd be nothing we could do about it. It's not like you can just walk into one of the biggest companies in the region and demand to see the boss so you can accuse him of being a criminal mastermind."

Angie's shoulders had sagged further, and she had said nothing.

"Ash," Dawn had said. "You're right. Whether or not Team Rocket is still at Viridian Gym, it's our best chance of success. Don't get your hopes up though."

Ash had looked triumphant at hearing this. "So it's settled then! We're off to Viridian City!"

And thus the group had started the newest leg of their journey, humming a song as they went. It was days, and a good few adventures later by now and they still had a good distance to cover. They were close though; they had passed Pewter yesterday, with Brock only mildly freaking out at yet another unexpected event pertaining to the gym.

* * *

Lazy author is lazy.

So here you go. The trio's first _real_ mission. I hope you liked the intensity of it, I can assure you the future battle will only be better.

I like to portray Jenny as someone who tends to have herself firmly grounded, which gives her an ability to take control of normal situations, but also means when the situation is beyond her realm of control she loses her authoritative abilities.

I personally think that I write better at the higher level of skill. The parts of Cynthia and Lucario seemed to flow a bit better when I wrote them than the parts of, say, the fight against Nicole. All the more incentive to make Team Rocket strong as soon as possible, I guess.

This chapter marks the 50,000 words mark. *celebrations*. Only ten more chapters until this fanfic shows up on the highest word count filter on fanfiction. Maybe less if I keep up this type of chapter length.


End file.
